Vengeful Love
by Seaside Fantasies
Summary: When Shen is healed by an albino peahen, he sets off on a ruthless quest for revenge- but is revenge really what he wants? This stranger might prove otherwise, and it seems she knows more about his past than even he does...
1. Help and Healing

Pain. That was the first thing he was aware of. Muscle-straining, bone-shattering pain. He would undoubtedly have cried out if he hadn't been so exhausted. Beyond the pain, however, everything was a blank white void, full of mystery and despair. Was he alive, or was he dead? Shen didn't know, and he really didn't care to find out. Ever since that blasted panda had defeated his forces in the harbor, he'd stopped caring about anything. After all, it wasn't like he had anything to care about.

It hurt. Hurt to move, hurt to think. Hurt to do anything. His body felt like it was being split in two, and he was aware of a throbbing pain in his right leg. Just how broken was he from the cannon fall? He didn't even want to look, didn't want to see the extent of his injuries. If that pathetic old goat that dared to call herself a soothsayer was here, she likely would have inserted a rather clever and sarcastic comment into the situation. Not that it would have made the peacock lord feel any better.

Letting out a long sigh, Shen collapsed into unconsciousness once more.

* * *

><p>When he awoke once more, Shen wearily opened his eyes, taking a look at his surroundings for the first time. He was laying on a small cot, draped in bandages and surrounded by countless medical supplies. He was aware of sounds of activity in the background, letting his eyes travel upwards to the roof of the wooden hut that he was sheltered in. This certainly wasn't what he'd imagined heaven to look like- then again, did he really belong in heaven, with all the things that he'd done in his past? But he was still feeling mild pain- which probably meant that he was still alive.<p>

Memories came rushing back to him. At the last possible second, he'd managed to duck under the cannon, avoiding the majority of its weight. But still, he should be dead- he _deserved _to be dead. He had literally felt the bones breaking in some part of his body, but he had been too deeply in the grips of shock to notice where he was broken.

A soft voice rang out in the background then. "Oh, good, you're awake. You'd been out for about three days- I was beginning to think you were in a coma or some.."

The occupant of the voice ducked just in time to avoid a throwing blade that imbedded itself into the wall, just inches from where her head had been just a moment before. If Shen hadn't been so disoriented, his aim would likely have been far more accurate. The warlord hissed in frustration, letting his tail feathers flare out in order to terrify the female into submission. His eyes narrowed into crimson slits, a loud caw emitting from his throat. This display had worked on the townspeople constant times, and he had no doubt that it would work on whoever this impudent female was. To his surprise, she didn't seem frightened- just mildly amused.

"You're a lord, aren't you?"

"What gave you your first clue?" Shen snapped, still keeping a wary eye on the peahen in front of him. This wasn't good- she probably knew who he was, so would she be angered by his evil deeds?

"Those are some very regal-looking robes you're wearing. If you're supposed to be a lord, your manners leave something to be desired." the female stated sarcastically.

"What on _earth_ do you mean?"

"Well, generally, it's not considered very good manners to attack someone who's trying to help you." she stated, her eyes suddenly widening. "Hey, you're albino… just like me." Shen noticed, for the first time, the coral-pink eyes of the female, and the startling white feathers that framed her thin body.

"I am _nothing_ like you." he hissed. "Now get away from me."

"You need medical attention. Now sit down so I can help.."

"I don't need help, especially from the likes of you!" he practically screamed at the female, rising up and leaping off the bed, flapping his wings frantically to try and gain some altitude, cursing the limited flying abilities of peacocks now more than ever. If he could just manage to glide over to that window…

A searing pain sweeping through his right wing interrupted his train of thought, and Shen let out a cry of pain, but still continued stubbornly onwards. He managed to glide for a few more feet before his wings folded to his sides, and he crashed to the ground, panting from sheer exertion.

"Like I'm sure you've witnessed, flying isn't a good idea. Walking probably isn't so good either." the healer announced. "Your leg's badly sprained, and I think your wing's been fractured.."

Shen was barely paying attention to the healer. "That panda… I must take revenge!" he seethed, trying several times to rise from the floor, only to be stopped by the female's gentle touch.

"Hey, hey, woah. What part of 'sprained leg and fractured wing' do you not understand? You need to rest and heal. In the condition you're in, you couldn't take revenge against an ant."

"I shall do no such thing…" Shen was interrupted by the female helping him up and pushing him towards the bed. "You insolent fool!" Raising his right leg to strike at the peahen with his metal casings, tears came to the lord's eyes as the throbbing pain increased in the leg. Shooting a venomous glare at the healer, he slowly lowered his leg.

"Hey, I wasn't exactly kidding about the sprained leg." The female announced, laying him down in the bed. "Now rest. I'm going to see if I can whip up a poultice to put on that leg."

Shen watched as the female went to work, quietly humming to herself as she bent over a small cauldron in the center of the room, occasionally tossing in small leaves or seeds. "Who are you, female? What is your name?" he inquired, in his usual commanding tone of voice.

"Lan." The Chinese word for orchid. It certainly seemed fitting, considering how many flowers and plants she had strewn about the hut. "May I ask who you are?"

Here she went again, trying to find out who he was. Well, he'd tell her his name, but Shen would be darned if he'd reveal anything about his past to this stranger. She'd no doubt have heard about it already. "Shen. _Lord_ Shen."

"Not ringing any bells. But hey, at least I got the lord part right." Shen was surprised- he'd thought everyone in Gongmen City had known about him. Evidently, there were still a few townspeople who chose to live in ignorance.

"All right, this might sting a bit…" Lan stated, coming forward with the poultice in her beak. Before Shen even had the chance to protest, she had slapped the poultice against his wound, and soon a burning sensation began to rise from it. Tears threatened the lord for the second time that day, but he chose to shoot another glare in her direction instead.

Oh, how badly he wanted to impale the female right where she stood! He didn't really know how many throwing blades he had left, however, and he wasn't about to waste any remaining ones. "Well, assuming that I'm healed, I can go now."

"You don't heal from these kind of injuries in three days. It'll take many more days, maybe even weeks. You're staying here, whether you like it or not." The glitter in Lan's pink eyes was enough to make Shen release a heavy sigh, flopping down onto the bed once more.

"Are you always this infuriating?" he snarled in a harsh whisper.

"Are you always this stubborn?" Lan returned. "I'm only trying to help!" How she sounded so much like the soothsayer just then…

Shen wasn't listening anymore, turning so that his back was to the female. He'd stay- only to regain enough strength to teach this arrogant commoner a lesson. Then, he'd somehow manage to track down that wicked, hated panda, and make him pay.

He'd pay with blood for what he'd done to Gongmen City's warlord.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> So, I just saw Kung Fu Panda 2, and I really like Lord Shen as a villian. Not just because he's totally kick-ass, but because he seems to have more of a backstory than Tai Lung. He has more reasons to become evil, and for that, I admire him.

I know, there are waaay too many stories about Shen actually surviving the cannon fall, but this is the first one where he's going to eventually have a romantic interest outside of the Furious Five. I tried to write him in character as much as I could, trying to match his stubborness with Lan's wit. These two are going to butt heads _so _much during the course of the story. It already seems like she's gotten on his bad side- then again, I really don't think it takes that much to get on Shen's bad side.

Please read and review!


	2. Anger and Nightmares

Two days. For two days, he'd been here in this stinking hut, forced to lie on a rather uncomfortable cot while Lan raced around all about him, trying to mix up poultices and feed him plants that normally would only be acceptable for squirrel food. Shen was thoroughly convinced that the female was trying to starve him to death, as he hadn't had a decent bite of food in what seemed like weeks. Added on to the dreaded medicine that she was trying to smooth onto his wing that burned so badly, Shen had to use all of his self-control to not stuff her in her cauldron that sat in the middle of the room. Either that, or cut out one of her annoyingly beautiful pink eyes.

So, here he was, being objected to the humiliation of having medicine smoothed onto his wing. Writhing around in his bed, Shen attempted to wiggle out of Lan's grasp. The fact that his injured leg held him down only made things much more frustrating. Crying out in pain for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day, the peacock lord shot a venomous glare at the healer.

"Yeah, well, it's going to hurt a lot more if I don't put this poultice on it… oh, for Pete's sake, Shen, hold still! You're wriggling around like a snake or something!"

"Easier said than done." he hissed, relaxing only slightly as Lan wrapped his injured wing in a soft cloth material.

"Well, there you go. That'll hold the bone in place, at least. Maybe, with enough time, it'll put itself back together. I'm not exactly an expert on fractured limbs…" Lan mused to herself. "Still, I think it would be good to hold it still for a while. Your leg seems to be getting better."

Only because it had been elevated for two days, leaving Shen to try sleeping in some rather awkward-looking positions, and right now he had it tightly pinned up to his side, trying to avoid putting weight on it as much as possible. He'd tried walking on it once, and the pain that had shot through the leg had caused him to tuck it up against him so fast that he had surprised even himself. It wasn't often that Shen got surprised at anything, so it had left him with a rather puzzled feeling.

"You seem to know more about healing than a young one such as yourself should." Shen announced, a slight warning tone in his voice as he did so.

"Eh, when you've been on your own for almost twelve years, you tend to learn quite a few things. My parents weren't really around all that much to teach me." Lan said in her usual flat tone of voice. "What about your parents?"

Shen visibly winced. The female had opened up a wound that was barely protected on him, whether she actually realized it or not. It took him a few moments to speak, and when he did his voice was layered with bitterness and hate. "My parents… hated me. They promised that I would be the next heir to the throne, and they lied. They always lied to me. They never understood or appreciated me."

Lan, meanwhile, had stopped working long enough to listen to Shen's words. Was that sadness she detected in his lyrics? She didn't know for sure, and it was barely there, but she noticed it. "I know the feeling. My parents thought I was a waste of their time, basically, just because I was albino."

Another nerve hit. Unlike most people thought, Shen didn't pride himself on being albino. He hated it. Hated that people stared whenever he walked by, hated that he was a full-grown adult with the immune system of a chick, hated that he was different from all other male peacocks. He had never been able to attract females, for they would always shun him, thinking that his strange condition would produce frail, sickly offspring. He'd flair his tail feathers out in vain, desperately hoping that at least one female would actually notice him for the tiniest of seconds. But they never did.

So he had found another use for his tail feathers- as weapons. They helped him balance, helped him intimidate his enemies. The order to have knives hidden in them was the best decision he had ever made. It just made him much more skilled of a fighter. There was one knife hidden in his feathers, the biggest one, that he only used for the most brutal of fights. He affectionately called it Dragon. It was the most deadly of all his hidden knives- it had never, to date, missed its marks. He even had an intricate pattern of a dragon carved onto its wooden handle, just so he wouldn't get it confused with the other knives. He just wished he'd used it on that stupid panda while he still had a chance.

"I suggest you choose a different topic…" Shen hissed in a low monotone, half-thinking about drawing Dragon and unleashing it upon Lan. "Or else I won't hesitate to use one of my knives on you. Trust me, you don't want to see what I can do with these once I'm fully healed."

"Given the fact that you almost took my head off with one the other night, I kind of get the picture." Lan snapped, her pink eyes narrowing. Now she wished more than ever that she actually had tail feathers, so she could flare them out and intimidate Shen into being cooperative. "What is it that you want to do?"

" What I want is to be let out of this blasted hut." Shen stated, trying his absolute hardest to not raise his voice at the stupid peahen. "I'm tired of being cooped up, if your thick head can possibly process that." That, and the constant smell of burning plants was beginning to make him feel the tiniest bit nauseous.

"Sorry, no can do. You're not fully healed yet.." Dragon imbedding itself into the wall behind her put an end to any further denial.

* * *

><p>Shen hissed, some very colorful language flowing from his beak as the pain sliced through his wing once again. What with the crippled nature of both his leg and his wing, it was considerably lessening his fighting abilities. He could still balance, twisting and turning under his flying weapons, but moving was still a challenging task.<p>

Lan watched, fascinated, as Shen twirled his knives in the air, nonchalantly throwing them at a vase in the corner of the garden, shattering it in two. Oh, well, she hadn't really needed that vase for anything anyway. She watched with glee the gracefulness of his movements, the way his body seemed to bend and contort flawlessly. He seemed to be favoring his wing injury, and his attempt to jump up, whirling in the air as he unleashed his knives had been- let's call it fairly interesting- but all in all he seemed to be performing rather well.

"You have to teach me how to do that." she called from the corner of the garden, earning herself a glare from Shen. What was that guy's problem, anyway? She was only trying to be friendly and heal him. She'd never seen anyone this reluctant to receive medical treatment. Added to that, he had a terrible temper, either screaming at her every five minutes or threatening to throw his knives at her. This guy really needed to take a chill pill. Some anger-management courses wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

Shen, on the other hand, was having much the same thoughts about Lan. He'd threatened her, thrown knives at her, tried his usual threat displays- and yet the female still refused to leave him alone. Either she was incredibly brave, incredibly stupid, or just didn't know how to take a hint. At least she was actually bothering to heal him, instead of leaving him to die-which would have been good, had she not been so infuriating. He remembered what she'd said to him on the night of his first day at the hut.

"You know, for someone who's been in a self-induced coma for the past three days, you don't seem very thrilled to be alive."

The glare he had given her afterwards had shut her up for the remainder of the night. Maybe she was right, though. Maybe he did need to lose a bit of his temper and start being more happy. As if. Throwing one of his knives up, he ill-temperedly made a lightening-fast down stroke at a nearby flower. The defenseless plant had the bud savagely cut from its top before it even knew what had hit it.

* * *

><p>That night, Shen had the usual nightmares about being hit by the cannon, sinking under the water's surface, seeing the pandas he had killed so long ago returning to mock him in his hour of weakness. Crying out in his sleep and trashing about, the lord woke up to have Lan hovering over him, asking if he was alright. The only response he gave was a coughing fit that lasted for the good part of two minutes. Lan annoyingly made him take the usual bitter-tasting medicine, having him lay down in bed and take it easy for a while.<p>

"That must have been one heck of a nightmare. You were saying something about pandas." Lan said, though he could hear the questioning note in her voice. What was an attempt at yelling came out as a loud, but slightly less harsh, coughing fit. "Are you alright?"

"I…am…fine." Shen pronounced, rasping out the words.

"You're not fine until I say so. You shouldn't have gone outside in the first place! You've stressed your system enough as it is." Okay, now she sounded so much like the soothsayer that it was almost scary. Shen had no response to give, however, collapsing into a deep sleep.

When he awoke the following morning, Lan was messing about with her plants as usual. He tried to think about the pandas from last night. Where had that panda- Po, they had called him, come from? He had heard talk of the "Valley of Peace", but was that really where the panda had lived?

"You, female…"

"I have a name, you know." Lan snapped while bending over her cauldron, mixing herbs together.

"Lan, then…. how far is the Valley of Peace from here?" he questioned.

"Oh, two, maybe three day's journey, depending on how fast you go. Why do you ask?" Lan questioned.

"That is none of your business." Shen groaned as he accidentally raised his injured wing. Darn being sick! Darn it, darn it, darn it!

"It is my business if you're going somewhere without my permission. You're not healed yet…" A knife imbedding itself into the wall once more stopped her. "Oh, come on… is that really necessary?"

Shen leaped forward, pinning her to the floor with surprising agility. Leaning into her face, he pronounced each word in a threatening monotone. "You _will _take me there. Otherwise I won't hesitate to use that pretty little head of yours as my own personal pincushion. Get the picture?"

Nodding fiercely, Lan stumbled to her feet, shooting one last glare at Shen as she set about packing a small bag full of traveling herbs and other supplies. She'd been as nice to the lord as possible, but honestly, she didn't think she could stand this sort of abuse for much longer.

Was it too much to ask that they could be friends, instead of mortal enemies?

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> The name for one of the knives- yeah, I kinda got my inspiration for that from Open Season, where the hunter names his gun Lorraine. But don't worry, Shen won't be talking to his knives anytime soon. He just has a particular fondness for the most accurate and deadly ones.

The "using your head as a pincushion" line is kind of a shoutout to the book _Nightshade _by Andrea Cremer. It's a pretty kick-ass line, and I just thought it fit well in there. The book is awesome, so you should definitely check it out.

You'll learn in the future why Lan doesn't really say much about her parents just yet. Trust me. :) It's awesome that I got two reviews in such a short period of time, and two favorites! So, I hope you'll keep reviewing.

This is kind of a quick update, but I kind of wanted it to get done before my horse show tomorrow. So... yeah.


	3. Journey and Rivers

They had set off early in the morning, so as to cover the distance between the city and the valley as quickly as possible. Shen had led the way for the beginning part of the journey- after all, this was terrain he was fairly familiar with, having taken small strolls around the city and the surrounding areas when he was a hatchling. He would have liked to go at a much faster pace than what they were managing, but with his leg still acting up on him at odd intervals, he was forced to hobble along at a rather ungraceful trot-type walk.

Foot down. Pain. Foot up. Pain. Foot down…

Oh, crap, he'd stepped on a thorn. Shen muttered a few curse words to himself, instantly regretting it. Royals, as a general rule of thumb, were strictly prohibited from swearing in public, and Shen had always prided himself on his clean mouth. The soothsayer likely would have given him a rather harsh glare if she had been there. _Stop thinking about the old goat! You're not a defenseless hatchling anymore, you don't need her!_ Emitting a small hiss of pain as the thorn imbedded itself even further into his foot, Shen glared at the troublesome plant matter, viciously plucking it out with his beak and tossing it aside, trying to ignore the small spurt of blood that came with it.

"You too, huh? I swear, these little buggers are everywhere…" Lan muttered, stepping up beside him. "I must have every thorn from this side of China lodged in my foot."

"How far are we from the Valley of Peace?" Shen prompted, a few curse words dying on his tongue as another bolt of pain shot through his leg.

"Does the term 'patience' mean anything to you?" Lan snapped, unfurling a map. "We just left, after all… let's see, we need to walk about another hour or so before we'll reach a small river, and then we need to get on a ferry…"

Any hopes that Shen had of this being a quick journey were smashed to smithereens on the jagged crags of his mind.

* * *

><p>He'd lost track of how long they'd been walking for. Only the hope of meeting that blasted panda and bringing him to justice spurred him onwards, and thankfully the small spurts of pain in his leg were finally beginning to subside. The occasional swear word from the pain did make it past his beak, earning himself a small reprimand from Lan, but other than that, there was considerably less tension between the two then the days before- but only because Shen didn't know how well he'd be able to hit a moving target with his leg acting up.<p>

It was only when they reached the small river that Lan had spoken of that they ran into some trouble. Shen froze at the water's edge, his thoughts suddenly becoming jumbled together in a huge knot. For some reason or another, the peacock lord had always had a deathly fear of water. Maybe it was because, being weaker than the other peacocks in the city, he really couldn't swim all that well. Maybe it was just the typical, irrational children's fear that something bad was going to happen the moment he got into the water. He had even entered a stage where he'd refused to take baths for a while, and only the soothsayer forcing him into the wash bin had actually gotten him to, albeit rather reluctantly, carry out the daily chore.

"Huh, the ferry was supposed to be here…" Lan questioned, looking at the map once more and gesturing to a pig that was sitting at the dock. "Excuse me, what time is the ferry supposed to be here?"

"Look, the owner's sick and nobody's actually taking rides today. Sorry, miss, you'll just have to wait until another day."

"Well, isn't there another ferry we could take?" Lan questioned, a slight frustrated note starting to creep into her tone.

"Not unless you want to walk ten miles up the river. Especially with that guy in tow." Any further words from the pig were silenced by a throwing blade imbedding itself into the dock beside him, and the small mammal ran away literally squealing at the top of his lungs.

"You have got to stop doing that…" Lan sighed, exasperated. "You just scared off the only chance we had at getting on another ferry, which means that we're probably going to have to swim across."

"Swim across _that_?" Shen rasped, looking across the river slightly. The current did seem a bit swift for his liking, and there was always the risk of crocodiles lurking about…

"Oh, honestly, Shen. It's just a tiny little paddle across the river. Don't tell me that you can't swim now."

"I can swim!" Shen snapped. _I just don't really like to… _

"Good. Now get in." Lan ordered, gesturing toward the river.

"Absolutely not. We're finding that other ferry…" Shen started to walk forward, but was blocked by Lan's body barring the way.

"Either you get in or I push you in. Trust me, you really don't want to be pushed in."

"What makes you think that a weakling like yourself could.." One moment he was talking to Lan, trying to get her to see his point of view, and the next he was completely submerged in the water. Writhing around in a panic, Shen spluttered to the surface, giving Lan a rather nasty "I'm _so_ going to kill you when I get out of this river" look.

"You are such an infuriating brat." he hissed silently.

"Oh, yeah? Well, _you're_ such an egotistical, hard-headed ass." Lan hissed. "For two days, I've had to put up with your freaking attitude, and I'm sick of it. Now get in the river!"

Shen eventually agreed, and they swam across slowly and surely- the slowly part owing partially to the fact that Shen would cling to Lan whenever something unfamiliar brushed against him in the water. Finally, they made it to the opposite shore, and Shen sank into the mud, panting loudly.

"Don't ever make me do that again." he snarled up at the peahen.

_Oh, did I hurt your royal feelings? Well, too darn bad. Suck it up already! _Lan snapped mentally, instead choosing to cock her head to one side playfully. "You know, you're kind of cute when you're freaking out about something."

"Shut UP."

* * *

><p>They made camp that night, Lan going off to gather firewood when they were finished. Shen, meanwhile, lay close by the fire, partly to let his soaking-wet robe dry off-he was still refusing to speak to Lan after the whole river-crossing incident- and partly because he admired the way the flames leaped up in the air before dying back down. Trying to ignore the feeling of the sparks scorching his feathers, he sat as close to the fire as possible, watching the flames with barely hidden glee in his eyes. Okay, yes, you could call him a bit of a pyromaniac, but Shen did tend to admire something that was capable of causing destruction and death. He'd witnessed a forest fire from the balcony of the palace once, and while at the time he hadn't found it to be very beautiful or useful, now he was sure that he would have watched the same flames with glee in his eyes.<p>

Lan came back, a heaping load of firewood in her arms, to see Shen apparently practicing target practice on a tree, muttering to himself the whole time.

"Greetings, panda. We meet once again… now, tell me, how do you like a taste of your own… MEDICINE!" he snarled, the twin knives sinking into the bark with a dull thud.

"Uh… Shen?"

"Now you'll know how I felt the day I.."

"SHEN!"

Whirling around, Shen raised one of the knives high, only to be met with Lan's innocent face. "Oh, you." he muttered, the word "you" being said the same way you might say "cockroach" or "shrunken head".

"Yeah, me… what on earth are you doing?"

"That is none of your business." Shen snapped.

Lan sighed to herself briefly. Couldn't Shen do something as simple as answering a question without some sort of threat thrown in her direction? "We should probably bed down for the night. Just a thought."

"We will keep going." Shen hissed, yanking his knives out of the tree as he did so.

"Look, night falls fast in the jungle- so unless you really want to be stumbling around in the dark for the remainder of the evening, you should probably stay here."

Shen's only response was a resigned sigh as he crossed over to the fire and laid down beside it, Lan doing the same. Just before Shen closed his eyes to go to sleep, he could have sworn that he heard a wolf howl in the distance.

_He had the usual nightmare that night, but now the pandas were actually talking to him instead of trying to drag him deeper into the water._

"_Don't you like it? It's a gift- your __**parting**__ gift!" they snickered, and Shen felt indescribable fear lance through him as they used his own words to mock him._

"_No, stop… no, please, NO!"_

Whimpering in fright, the lord bolted awake, breathing heavily as he quickly did a silent sweep of the area. Everything was as it should be, with Lan snoring lightly beside him- but, wait, were those glowing eyes that he'd seen in the darkness? He couldn't be sure, for they had vanished as soon as he had looked at them. Darn these nightmares… he'd had them every night in a row that he'd spent with Lan, and they kept getting worse.

"Stupid…panda…" he hissed, drawing one of his knives ever so slightly, just in case what he'd seen in the darkness was of any threat to the duo. He was still debating whether or not he should actually bother to save Lan in the event of an attack when a _very_ familiar voice rang out from behind him.

"Hello, Shen."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> This chapter sucks. So much. I feel kinda bad for Shen, though, in this chapter- getting pushed into _any_ body of water isn't really a whole lot of fun, and Lan's probably not going to make his fear of water any better by doing that.

There's a slight Indiana Jones reference in this chapter, for anyone who can catch it. Free cookies to the first person to spot it.

I agree, there is a total lack of peahens in the movie. Pratically the only one you see is Shen's mom. Also, for all you Soothsayer fans, there's going to be a lot of her in the next chapter. :) As a side note, I put two Kung Fu Panda quotes on my profile. It's my favorite Shen and Soothsayer lines from the sequel.

Wow, a lot of reviews and favorites... 0-0. Well, let's hope that those keep coming, shall we?


	4. Propechies and Friends

Whipping around, Shen quickly sized up his options of attack. The owner of the voice had seemed rather small, so he was going to have to aim his knives a lot lower than usual in order to hit his marks. Granted, he could always use his staff on whoever it was if need be, but for now he'd stick with his first option. Quickly drawing Dragon out of his feathers, he let out an enraged hiss as he prepared to throw the large knife at the intruder.

"Surely you wouldn't be so bold as to use one of your knives on me, Shen?"

There was that voice again, that _infuriatingly_ familiar voice, and he whipped around only to come face to face with none other than the soothsayer. "You… I thought I got rid of you and your stupid prophecies the day I banished you." Shen growled, barely disguised fury in his voice as he glared down at the goat.

Lan, meanwhile, had crossed over to see what all the commotion was about. "Who's she?"

The soothsayer smirked to herself- great, finally she meets one person that doesn't mistake her for a male the moment they lay eyes on her. "I came because you need me, Shen. More than you might think."

"You _know_ this creep?" Lan whispered, just loud enough for Shen to hear it.

"Unfortunately." Shen muttered, before hissing out his words at the soothsayer. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a hatchling anymore. If I needed your help, I would have asked for it. Now stop clinging to me like you're my shadow!" Lan visibly winced- if she was spoken to like that, she wouldn't have hesitated to teach Shen the lesson of a lifetime. The goat, however, seemed only momentarily ruffled, giving a small smile to Lan before speaking once more.

"Oh, Shen, when will you learn? My prophecy came true, did it not? You were defeated by a warrior of black and white, as I foretold."

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" the peacock lord scowled, trying his best to not raise his voice at his former nanny. "Not exactly my definition of being defeated."

"How did she even know where we were, anyway?" Lan muttered, trying her best to break the tension between the two.

"Tracks in the mud are not as hard to follow as you might think." the soothsayer smiled, before glancing up at Shen once more. "Perhaps you want your fortune told again?"

All right, he'd do it, but only to humor the old fool. "Fine. But don't think that I'll listen to anything you have to say." Sitting down, he watched as the goat took out one of her bowls, setting it down and staring deeply into it, throwing the usual strange materials into it- including one of Shen's feathers, which earned her a wicked glare from him, and the term "looks could kill" briefly came to mind.

_Might as well get this over with… _Shen sighed to himself. "Well, what do you see?"

Out of the smoke rose a dim shape that slowly grew brighter. It was a red eye, not unlike the ones imprinted upon Shen's tail feathers, and for a moment he glanced back, bewildered at the strange resemblance, before he reminded himself that all of this was an illusion, a rather clever trick of the eyes. There was no way that anything the old fool said was going to prove to be true. All right, yes, the "warrior of black and white" crap had been an unusual exception, but the odds of whatever the prediction was being true were fairly slim.

"To succeed in life, you must first embrace compassion and caring- the feeling of actually looking out for a person other than yourself. Eventually, it will blossom into love." Here, the faint outline of an orchid appeared through the mist, its petals enveloping the floating eye. "That will be your true path to happiness."

Hissing in rage, Shen flung Dragon at the bowl, shattering it into nothing more than tiny glass shards. Letting out a resigned sigh, the soothsayer bent to pick them up. That was the fifth bowl in a row of hers that Shen had broken- the first three had owed to the usual clumsiness of childhood, where he'd trip over or step on them, wailing as she would pull the shards out of his feet. The last two had been on purpose.

"Now you listen to me, you old fool." Shen hissed, his anger beginning to clearly show in the raising of his tail feathers, slowly but surely. He spoke in the low monotone that he always did when he wanted to appear threatening- usually, hearing that tone of voice come out of his mouth was a sign that you were going to die, sooner or later, by his claws. "The only reason why I'm actually letting that brat follow me around is that she's completely defenseless on her own, and she's bothering to give me medical attention." A scornful laugh rang out from his throat before he continued. "You honestly expect me to believe that love will be my path to supposed happiness?"

"I don't expect you to believe-I _know_ you will believe." the old one intoned, the usual stoic expression remaining firmly glued to her face.

"Love is weakness." he hissed, his voice tight as he did so.

"What about your parents? You loved them once."

Oh, she had hit a nerve. Bristling with rage, it took all of Shen's self-control to not impale the fool right where she stood. "My parents hated me. You know it. _You always knew it!_" he hissed, his voice slowly rising to a harsh scream. "Why must you make me believe otherwise? They… never… loved me." Shen intoned, his breath coming out in shallow gasps as he did so.

"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" the goat inquired, looking sympathetically up at her surrogate child.

"If you have any sort of sense about you…" Shen hissed, slowly beginning to unsheathe one of the blades from its hiding place. "You will leave here as quickly as possible."

"Goodbye, Shen. Good luck on your journey. I hope you find what you are looking for." his former nanny intoned before she was gone, pushing her way through the bushes.

"I don't want luck." Shen muttered half to himself, plucking Dragon out of the ground and wiping it on the grass as he did so. "I want revenge!"

"Okay, what was that all about?" Lan piped up from where she had been sitting by the fire, half shivering to herself. She'd never seen Shen that angry about anything before, and quite frankly, it was rather frightening.

"Nothing that your pretty little head needs to concern itself about." he hissed, looking up at the sky. "Now, let's get moving." Without even waiting for a response, Shen set off into the underbrush, not even bothering to see if Lan was actually following or not. Blocking out the pain shooting up his leg as much as possible, Shen tried his best to ignore the feeling of tears rising up in his eyes, clouding his vision.

* * *

><p>"Where are we staying for the night?" Shen intoned as he walked behind Lan, his tone fairly steady as he did so- he'd pretty much gotten over the emotional turmoil of last night, and now they were setting off again- only this time, Lan was in the lead, as they'd exited the city limits long ago, in land that Shen was no longer familiar with.<p>

"I know some friends who would be happy to take us in." Lan said, putting the small map that she'd drawn out away as she did so. "That leg of yours looks like it needs more ointment on it."

"It's fine." Shen hissed, trying to overcome his sudden feeling of dread at the mention of Lan's friends. No doubt they would be just as infuriating as her. "What are these friends of yours like?"

"Well, I have to warn you, they can be a bit exuberant at times. Just be polite and everything will work itself out."

"Define _polite_."

"Well, not trying to impale them would be good." Lan said, a slightly sarcastic tone ringing out in her lyrics. "Look, just attempt to get along with them and everything will be fine and dandy."

Sighing to himself, Shen kept walking. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>Lan motioned for Shen to stop as they neared the door of a small wooden cottage, having walked all the way up the stone pathway to get to it- which, much to Shen's chagrin, had been up a fairly steep hill. Walking up to the door, she rapped upon it two times, and barely a moment had passed before it opened, a small voice speaking from within.<p>

"Well, who is it? Look, if you're a party guest, you're, like, a day late…"

"It's a gang of ferocious bandits. Honestly, Zhong, who do you think it is?"

Shen was fairly surprised when a male raccoon flung himself out of the door and tackled Lan to the ground, grinning ear to ear. "Lan! Oh, man, what're you doing here? If we knew you were coming, we would have tidied the place up a bit…"

"Zhong? Who's there at the door?" Shen was even more surprised when an Indian Cobra came slithering out of the doorway, a sudden smile upon his face. "Hey, if it isn't Ms. Orchid herself!"

"Yeah, Xun! Look who came to visit… and on such short notice… but who cares? We haven't seen you in _ages_!" The raccoon said, hugging Lan tightly. "Now, why are you here, anyway?"

"Oh, a guest of mine needs somewhere to stay for the night."

"Who would that be… oh, man." Zhong came forward, his ears flattening in awe. "Xun, dude, you know who that is?"

"No freakin' way, man. That's Lord Shen! That's seriously Lord Shen!"

"I thought he was supposed to be dead…"

"Nah, man, you got it all twisted, he was banished…"

"Banished, smanished. He's here! Dude, you are totally awesome! What with the knife-throwing and all that…"

Shen, for once in his life, was at a complete loss for words. He never thought that he'd actually have admirers- and this far from the city, too. Clearing his throat, he finally spoke. "Yes, and might I say it wasn't very amusing to walk all the way up that blasted hill." he snarled, hoping these fools would finally get the message- that he was_ not_ a force you wanted to be reckoning with.

Zhong twiddled his tail between his hands, looking genuinely embarrassed. "Yeah, well, that's kinda my dad's fault. He wasn't real careful about home location- it's mostly to keep the riff-raff out, anyway."

Xun finally broke the silence. "Look, why don't you guys come in and relax a little while? We've got shadow puppets, music.."

"Xun, don't you think we could go one day here without a party?" Lan spoke, rolling her eyes.

Xun, however, had lowered a small object from the shelf in the home, presenting it to Lan. "Look, we like him so much, we even made him an action figure!"

Shen stared at the figure- which, he had to admit, looked scarily similar to him. He almost wanted to admire it before he finally stopped himself.

"We're still working on trying to get knives or something in this darn thing… and the head keeps popping off, for some weird reason…" At that moment, the head did so, bouncing across the wooden floors of the house. "But it's a work in progress, what the heck?"

"Well, come on, guys. Mi house is su house, you know." Zhong spoke, ushering them through the door, though Shen could still hear whispers of their conversation.

"Dude, this is so awesome! Lord Shen is here in our house!"

"I heard when he was born, he was kind of sickly… doesn't look very sickly to me. He'll probably scratch up the floorboards with those metal things, too…" Xun muttered to himself.

"Aw, who cares, we can have them replaced. Maybe he'll show us some of his knife tricks!"

"No way, man…"

"Yes way!"

Shen closed his eyes momentarily, letting a loud groan escape his beak.

It was going to be a _very_ long night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Yeah, I know, a raccoon and cobra aren't exactly Chinese species, but I'd had these characters in my head for a while, so just roll with it. Btw, "Zhong" is the Chinese word for loyal, and "Xun" means swift-trust me, if you've ever seen a ticked-off cobra, you'll know what I mean. These two are kind of the rabid fangirls (or guys), of the KFP world, and they're going to get on Shen's nerves so dang much through the next few chapters.

I tried to keep Soothsayer in character as much as I could, so I apologize if anyone thinks I didn't. You'll notice I didn't capitalize the "soothsayer" part- simply because I find it hard to believe that that's really her name, but eh.

I think you guys will find the next chapter quite... amusing. What, no, I'm not implying anything, no siree bob. :)

Keep up with the kind reviews!


	5. Hangovers and Caring

Morning came, and along with it came a splitting headache, wincing every time the slightest little noise came to his ears, and the sudden urge to puke his guts out. To put it in way simpler to understand terms…

Lord Shen was having his very first hangover.

Moaning to himself as he turned over, Shen tried his best to fight the feeling of bile rising up in his throat. He felt like crap-probably looked like it too. He doubted Xun and Zhong were in a much better condition, as he could hear drunken singing coming from the other room, followed by several loud hiccups. Lan's voice rang out soon after.

"Okay, that's the _last_ time I'm letting you guys within a foot of anything even _remotely_ similar to alcohol ever again."

"Uhh… Lan, can you go away? I'm kind of feeling if-ish right now."

"Serves you right for having a drinking contest, of all things! God knows how you got Shen wrapped up in all of this…" Lan's voice sounded slightly exasperated, and Shen winced to himself. Okay, he had to admit, he had absolutely no control over his actions. Just one of his many flaws.

He hadn't even wanted to partake in their stupid contest in the first place, but seeing as Zhong kept annoyingly refilling his glass he had no choice but to be polite and go along with it. _Never again. _he thought to himself, wincing. Shen had only drunk wine a few times in his life- for some reason, he'd never liked the taste very much-but he was never again going to drink that much in one sitting. He hated how fuddled alcohol made his senses-he couldn't even find the strength to lift one of his knives, let along throw them at that infuriating raccoon for being so darn idiotic.

Light came into the room as Lan opened the door, and Shen winced, worming even further under the covers.

"Breakfast, Shen. C'mon."

"Dun' want to." he muttered, twisting around and squeezing his eyes shut. Every little sound that came to his ears was like agony to him, so maybe if he was allowed more time to sleep it off he'd be fine and dandy.

"C'mon. Wake up."

"I said no- GAH!" Shen screamed as Lan threw the bed sheets off of him, wincing as his voice was raised to an uncomfortable level. "Will you stop doing that?"

"Yeah. C'mon, get up and drink this. It'll make the headaches a bit better, at least." Lan said, holding out a small bowl to him. Who knew what junk was floating around in it?

Shen sat up a bit, wincing as a new bolt of pain shot through his head. His head felt like it had been kicked full-force by a rhinoceros- how ironic, considering he'd actually managed to kill one once. Sipping on the broth, he reluctantly gained enough courage to ask what had happened last night.

"Well, first you started singing randomly… oh, don't even get me started on how you sounded." Lan said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, let's not keep me in suspense."

"Let's just say you were off-key at best and sounded like a dying hyena at worst." (Shen would later wonder just how she knew what a dying hyena sounded like.) "There wasn't anything too amusing after that… except Xun tried to propose to you."

"The idiot did WHAT?"

"Eh, I think you were too drunk to properly answer, anyway…" Lan muttered.

"Oh yes, that makes me feel _so_ much better about the situation." Shen hissed half to himself.

"Anyway, then you all started going on about talking mushrooms and flying horses, and collapsed soon after. I had to drag all of you to your beds… you're surprisingly heavier than I imagined you to be."

"If you breathe a word about this to anyone, I will personally slice your head like a watermelon." Shen growled, his eyes narrowing.

"Okay, is that really the best threat you can come up with?" Lan saw the knife rushing at her head from a mile away, and ducked just in time. Well, if Shen was well enough to be throwing his knives around, then that was definitely a good sign. Plus, all this ducking and dodging on a daily basis was really doing wonders on honing her reflexes.

Maybe having the peacock lord around wasn't such a bad thing after all.

* * *

><p>After the group had recovered from their slight amusement of the last night, the group ate breakfast together-though, it wasn't really together, considering how Shen didn't want to sit within a mile of the duo that was flocking over him, begging to be taught knife-throwing skills or trying to show him some relic that they'd made in his honor. Lan could have sworn that she saw one of his eyelids twitching ever so slightly at one point.<p>

The attention didn't get any better during the afternoon hours, and finally Shen had had enough. "Look, why do you fools find it necessary to hover over me like flies? I tried to take over China, destroy an entire city- so _why_ are you admiring me so much?"

"Dude, we don't care about the bad stuff. It's not like you were born bad or anything." Zhong spoke, giving a timid smile to the lord. "Yeah, sure, the whole panda-thing was a little unnecessary…"

"A _little_ unnecessary?" Xun muttered, rolling his eyes slightly.

_How do they even know about that?_ Shen thought, his eyes widening a bit from uneasiness. "Funny, I thought the "bad stuff" was what made someone qualify as evil." he growled slightly, his throat suddenly tightening.

"You're not evil, Shen." Xun spoke as the duo hurried off to answer Lan, who had shouted for them to come help her gather berries for lunch. "A bit misguided, maybe, but not evil."

For the second time that week, tears threatened Shen, and he had to blink stubbornly quite a few times to force them back down. Scoffing, he stalked his way through the small garden, ill-temperedly muttering to himself.

What the hell was wrong with him today?

He'd done target practice later on in the courtyard-but with Xun and Zhong fawning over every single move that he made, he'd found it hard to concentrate on where to throw his knives. Shen had even thrown Dragon at Zhong's head in a futile attempt to get him to shut up, but to his astonishment the raccoon seemed to talk even more after that. Finally, Shen just couldn't take it anymore- he'd done everything in his power to shoo the idiots away, but they just kept on coming. Growling to himself, he stalked off into the nearby forest, but not before he heard Xun's muttered remark.

"Who shoved a twig up his ass?"

The river still cut its way through the forest, and Shen sat by it, gazing down at his reflection. Surprisingly, he looked a lot better then he'd imagined himself to look after the fight with the panda- that, added on to the fact that he'd spent the last two days confined to a wooden hut. Suddenly, though, seeing his reflection didn't make him feel any better. It only made things worse. It only brought him back to the days when he was a weak little hatchling, with nothing better to do then to experiment with fireworks. His parents hadn't had a problem with it at the time- little did they know that that would be their fatal mistake.

All of a sudden, Shen hated the world and everyone in it. He'd thought that defeating that mediocre kung fu group- the Furious Five, they had called themselves-and taking over China would lead him to true happiness. It hadn't, though. It had only ended in failure, like so many of his plans. To make matters worse, the panda had even come to apparently mock his failure afterwards, to try and get Shen to change his ways. He'd been so infuriated at the time that he hadn't watched where he was aiming his knives…

The soothsayer said that love was the key to his happiness. But how could it be? He hadn't loved anything but fireworks since as long as he could remember, and he certainly didn't deserve love after what he had done to China. Just because Lan was just like him in so many ways, it didn't mean he was falling in love with her. As far as he knew, she hated his guts- and he wasn't particularly fond of her either, so it worked itself out in the end. She seemed completely defenseless, not to mention that she was sincerely infuriating at the best of times. Those weren't exactly traits that Shen would look for if he truly was in love.

He wasn't falling in love anytime soon. He _would _prove the soothsayer wrong, he'd prove everyone wrong. He didn't care for Lan. He didn't.

He didn't.

* * *

><p>Lan, on the other hand, was slightly worried about Shen. She hadn't seen him since early in the afternoon. It was now late evening, and he still hadn't shown up. Zhong and Xun seemed confident in Shen's abilities to take care of himself, but she wasn't so sure. She remembered the coughing fit he'd had a few days ago, how delicate and fragile he'd seemed as every cough shook his body to its core. She didn't know why she was going after him- he'd probably scream at her like always, threatening to chop her head off or mutilate her in some horrible way with his weapons- but something in her said he needed her help.<p>

"Shen! Shen?" she called out, slowly pushing her way through the underbrush. Barely a moment had passed before she heard a strangled cry coming from the riverside, and she ran forward to see Shen with his eyes tightly shut, his leg pinned up against his side. "What happened?" she questioned gently, kneeling down beside him.

"Leg… twisted it… stupid." he muttered half to himself, but Lan understood him enough to know what had occurred. For once, however, he wasn't hissing at her- and were those tears she saw glimmering in his eyes?

"We need to get you back to the cottage-can you walk?" Shen tried to, but fell forward- thankfully, right into Lan's arms. A strangled stream of curses escaped his mouth.

"I thought royals weren't supposed to swear in public." Lan said simply, lifting Shen slightly as she walked back in the direction of the house.

"H-How do you know that?" he spoke softly, before lapsing into silence once more. He was confused, though- had he just imagined Lan's eyes widening as he asked her the question?

"N-Never mind how I know." she muttered, her voice sounding suspiciously strained. "C'mon, let's go."

For once, Shen didn't try to resist- he was just happy that someone was caring enough to help him. Closing his eyes, the peacock lord decided to relax and at least attempt to enjoy the walk back to the cottage.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Aww, Lan/Shen bonding moment. Sorta kinda. Don't worry, the romance won't be happening for quite a few chapters just yet. I still want them to get on each other's nerves a bit before they start making out and all that. Also, Lan's eyes widening as Shen asks a question-what do you think that might imply towards, hmm?

Heehee, I know Shen having a hangover is just a _teensy _bit out of character, but I've wanted to do that for so long in one of the chapters. Yeah, I know, I have a wicked mind. He does kind of deserve it, though...

Also, now you know why Zhong and Xun don't hate Shen- they kind of see why he is the way he is, and they don't classify that as being evil in any way.

I know this is kind of a quick update, but I wanted to get it done sooner rather than later. Please read and review!


	6. Fireworks and Revealing

After she'd carried Shen back to the cottage, Lan laid him down on a small cot, immediately being swarmed with questions by both Xun and Zhong.

"Is he all right? He is okay, isn't he?"

"He does look a little pale…"

"Dude, he's _white_. How can you even tell whether he's pale or not…"

_Now I'm beginning to see why these guys constantly get on Shen's nerves._ Lan thought to herself. "Shut up and go get medical supplies!" she snapped, watching as her friends scurried from the room to obey her command. Leaning down, she watched as Shen's chest shakily rose and fell, a slight cough ringing out every now and then. Great, they'd hardly even been here for two days and already he'd caught some random disease. Shen had one heck of an immune system weakness, was all she had to say about the matter.

"Why me? Of all the peacocks in Gongmen… why did I ever think that caring for him was going to be easy?" she muttered to herself, grabbing a few leaves out of her traveling pack to brew together in a poultice.

Xun had come back in, coiling around her outstretched wing to offer some level of comfort. "So… are you finally going to tell him yet? You know… the truth about you?"

Lan winced, drawing back from the bedside as images flooded through her mind.

_A palace burning… bad omens… orchid petals drifting into the breeze, running through the forest, always running… _

"No!" Her sudden denial made Xun wince a bit, and she instantly regretted sounding so harsh. "No, not yet, at least… now's really not the time to be telling him." Lan muttered, glancing down at the bed. "Now tell Zhong to run along and boil these leaves up in a stew. Hopefully it'll bring his fever down."

"Okay, I really don't see what boiling a bunch of weeds is going to do for him…" He was interrupted by Lan glaring at him fiercely.

"These 'weeds' are going to help him get better, and you know it. Now run along." Xun was only too happy to do so. Lan could be sincerely threatening at times, and he was glad to have escaped the majority of her wrath.

* * *

><p><em>He was having that dream again- the one where he conquered the panda village. There was blood, fire everywhere, and the strangely satisfying sound of screams ringing out into the air. His wolves had found the village with surprising efficiency, now all he had to do was sit back and enjoy the show, while occasionally dealing out punishment to the more unruly pandas. He glared down at the village now, scoffing to himself. Such a pathetic little farming village, hidden away in this filthy forest. Why would anyone like living here? It was so infuriatingly peaceful here- like it was just begging for someone to come and break the peace. Well, that someone was going to have to be him.<em>

_Suddenly, he was pushed into the fire-like always, it scorched his feet, causing him to screech out in pain. Something was wrong this time, however… the flames weren't stopping at his feet. They continued up his body, enveloping him, suffocating him with their odor. He tried to run, but the fire had formed a complete circle around him, boxing him in. He tried screaming for someone, anyone, to help him, but no one came. _

"_Wolves! Lan! Oh gods…. NO!" _

Shen jolted awake, breathing heavily as he fought to keep his "fight-or-flight" response under control. There was no danger here, it had all been a dream- hadn't it? Thank the gods, he could hear Xun and Zhong whispering in the background.

"Do it, man. Just take one little feather, it's not like he's gonna notice or anything."

"Dude!" Xun's voice sounded horrified. "You know what he'll do to you if he spots one missing? He'll throw one of his knives at us… dude, I don't think you even realize how much trouble we could get ourselves into."

"Yeah, if he throws a knife we'll have one more souvenir."

"I can hear you brats crystal clear." Shen growled, his voice rasping a bit. "Raccoon, you even _think_ about pulling one of my feathers out, and so help me, your dying screams will be heard for a week afterwards!"

He didn't think he'd ever seen anyone run that fast. As Zhong bolted from the room, he could still hear slight whispers of their conversation.

"I told you, dude… shit, did you even see how angry he was?"

"Just shut up! You've gotten us in enough trouble as it is!"

"_I've_ gotten us into trouble?"

Lan drew closer to the bed, a slightly amused smirk on her face. "Honestly, I don't know what's gotten into those two lately. They're being much more… well, eccentric than normal. Feeling any better?"

"Do I honestly look like I'm feeling any better?" Shen hissed, trying to ignore the way the light coming in through the windows made Lan's feathers shine slightly.

"Not really… but here, drink this. I made it for you, in case you were hungry when you woke up." she pronounced, handing a small bowl full of soup to him.

Shen took an experimental sip of the substance, and surprisingly found it to his liking. "This is… surprisingly good." he announced, trying to keep his tone fairly neutral.

"Glad you like it. It's actually my mom's recipe. Remind me to show you how to make it later, if you'd like." Shen wanted to point out to her that it's generally not a royal's job to be cooking things, but his tongue couldn't bring itself to form the words.

"Look, there's a little village to the west of here that's having a firework display tonight… you wanna go?" Lan ventured, her voice taking on a slightly nervous-sounding tone.

Fireworks. What good had they ever done to him? He'd fashioned them into weapons, experimented for hours on end in his lab, and it had all been for nothing. But he does remember the soothsayer's prophecy, and suddenly he comes to a realization. Well, he won't fall in love, but maybe he could make an effort to be a little nicer to Lan. After all, she was perhaps the only one who actually cared enough about him to give him medical attention, and how did he repay her? By throwing knives at her head and screaming threats every five minutes.

Giving a resigned sigh, Shen sat back down in the bed. "Fine. We will go."

* * *

><p>The village is surprisingly crowded for being so small, and Shen found himself trying his best to restrain himself from brandishing a knife and throwing it at some random citizen. Yeah, that would part the crowd all right- and get them all caught. Lan had insisted that Shen wear a brown robe over his body- with a hood, of all things- to disguise himself, just in case someone were to recognize him. They are fairly far from the city by now, but there's always a chance that someone would see him and connect two with two.<p>

They'd arrived early enough to get good seats, and Shen fidgeted a bit from nervousness, despite being far away from any crowds. He was sitting fairly close to Lan, and he's bewildered at why he suddenly wanted to be closer to her. Thankfully, the fireworks started soon after, and Shen had a distraction to take his mind off of such a ridiculous subject. A few simple balls of sparks flew into the air, and the peacock lord found himself yawning at how boring and original they are. _Oh, please, they can do better than that. Why, if my parents were doing this… _Seeing what he's thinking, he immediately stopped himself from dwelling on the subject any longer.

Suddenly, the fireworks become more complicated- a phoenix rising into the air before exploding in a shower of sparks, shapes of flowers and vines twisting in mid-air, a dragon that chases its spiritual orb across the sky's surface. _Now this is more like it…_

All of a sudden, Shen had to choke back a strangled cry as the silhouette of a peacock rose from the sparks, looking white and almost strangely similar to him.

"Shen? You okay, man?" Zhong noticed, sincere concern in his voice.

"I'm… I'm fine." Shen muttered, casting another glance up at the sky. This time, he almost faints right off the side of the building as a ying and yang symbol floats, almost mockingly, into the air. It's so similar to the one in the soothsayer's prophecy that he's slightly shaken, and the tremors are clearly visible to Lan.

"Look, if you don't want to watch it…" Lan said, laying a wing on Shen's side, and he tries to convince himself to imagine the heat rising up in his cheeks as she does so_. Stop it, you don't love her, stop it stop it stop it… _

All of a sudden, it's far too much for Shen. Leaping off of the building- thankfully, it isn't that far of a drop to the ground- he ran off into the nearby forest, with Lan's cries to come back ringing in his ears. No, he won't go back to the place that only stands to mock him, to remind him of what should have been, but never will be. He won't go back to the place that shakes him to his very core.

Lan followed him into the underbrush, ignoring the sting of tree branches against her face as she hurried along. "Shen, come back, please…" she intoned, cursing herself for ever bringing him here. Obviously, seeing the white peacock and the everyday symbol are a trigger of bad memories for him, she should have seen that.

"_Stop following me!" _Shen hissed, throwing one of his knives at her, meaning to miss. Scowling as he hears it dully sink into the bark of a tree, he viciously yanks it out and continues, only to glare down at the metal casings on his feet with extreme annoyance as they snag on a fallen log, growling slightly.

"Shen, please. Just come back and enjoy the fireworks." There's that accursed word again, the one he never wants to hear as long as he lives.

"Do you have any idea what fireworks mean to me, Lan?" he whispered, before raising his voice slightly. "My parents made them, I turned them into weapons, and for what? So I could be defeated by some fat bear and have a prophecy turned against me?" He's shaking with rage now, and it takes all of what little self-control he has left to not intentionally harm Lan, because he suddenly realizes- he doesn't want to hurt her.

"Well, we could just go home, then. Look, I'm sorry for bringing you here- you're my friend, and…"

Friend? _FRIEND? _How dare she even _begin_ to suggest that they could be friends? It wouldn't make any sense! He's a royal, she's a commoner. He wants to take over China, the gods only know what she wants. Hissing with rage, he brutally yanked his feet out of the log, continuing forward.

_Clank clank clank clank… _

"Shut UP!" Shen scowled down at his feet, tripping over a hidden vine as he did so. He doesn't even bother to try and get back up, an exhaled breath escaping his mouth as he lies there on the forest floor.

Lan drew closer cautiously, knowing that at any moment Shen could snap. "W.. why do you even wear those things?" she asked, cocking her head slightly.

"They're to hide… burn scars." His voice sounds defeated in his tone, and her heart ached at seeing him like this. "Look, Lan, I attacked a peaceful village, and.."

"I know." That phrase completely baffles him as he turns to look at her.

"You knew? How… how on earth do you know so much about me? How do your idiot friends know so much about me?"

"Shen, I… I think it's time I told you something I should have told you a long time ago." Lan said, dreading hearing herself speak those very lyrics. "It requires a bit of story-telling, so pay attention."

Oh, like he really has a choice. Nevertheless, Shen sat up and listened carefully as Lan began to tell her story.

"Now, your mother had a sister. Her name was Lady Min. She's your aunt, so I assume you've heard of her already. She met Lord Gang while on an exploration of Gongmen City, and the following year they had a chick, a young female that they named Chang. When she was born, she had snow-white feathers, and coral-pink eyes. Needless to say, they weren't happy about the albinism of their first chick, but it was their child, so they promised to love it no matter what color it was…"

Shen was starting to see where this story was going, bewildered beyond comprehension. "Coral-pink eyes…. you have coral-pink eyes, you don't mean to say…" he muttered, gaping up at Lan.

"Yes, Shen, what you're hearing is true. I am your cousin, and I am-was-Princess Chang."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Hooray for cliff-hangers! Haha, seriously, though. This chapter was kind of a hassle to write, because I kept eliminating and re-adding the fireworks scene, before I finally realized that I did need it in order for Lan to finally reveal her history. So, she's a princess. Shocking, anyone? Yes? No? More will be revealed in the next chapter about her... did anyone correctly guess that she had something to do with royals?

Min- clever, sharp  
>Gang- strong<br>Chang- flourishing, prosperous

Also, according to a review, Xun has a fan now!

Xun: Haha, in your FACE, Zhong!  
>Zhong: :(<p>

Please read and review!


	7. Stories and Friendship

Shen could do nothing but gape up at Lan as he absorbed this information. All this time, he'd been traveling with his own cousin? No, that couldn't be right. Lan and her friends were far too dim-witted to be royals. Yet he knew it was true-Lan had far too much knowledge on the ways of royalty for her own good. All this time, he'd thought her smarts had been just a coincidence… had he really been too blind to see the obvious?

"You know, you look very much like a goldfish with your mouth flapping open like that." Lan spoke, suddenly sounding way more sophisticated then she had a minute ago. "Now, I'll tell you the rest of my history, but only if you'll be so kind as to sit up and pay attention."

Shen did so, but only because he was too bewildered to do much of anything else. He kept his eyes firmly glued to Lan as she began to tell her story.

"So, I grew up very much loved by my parents, doing whatever I could to please them. I did notice the way people looked at me for being albino, but I didn't let it get to me, for I rather prided myself on being different from anybody else. I grew up with Xun and Zhong, and they became my best friends over time. Oh, believe me, I was quite the little trouble-maker when I was a hatchling- I'd often purposefully skip my etiquette lessons, only going if I was forced to go. By the time I was a bit older, I'd settled down enough to be considered a princess, and the whole village treated me as such."

"We weren't without enemies, however." Lan took a shuddering breath at this, as if trying to calm her nerves before continuing. "A villainous band of foxes lived to the north of the village, and once a month they would come down from the foothills, take whatever they could, and then leave. The townspeople were getting quite tired of this, so they urged my parents to do something about it. So, Father led a force of badgers, snakes, and whatever other fighting animals he could lay his hands on to the village, to try and reason with the leader, a devious black fox named Hong."

Was Shen just imagining tears clouding up Lan's vision? She was taking small shuddering breaths as well, not unlike the ones he would take as a last resort to calm himself down. "Hong preferred to let his warriors do the dirty work for him. He had been crippled in one of his hind legs when he was younger, so as such he preferred to stay within the safety of his guard. At first, the exchange started off peaceful. But when Father said that they would be posting guards at the entrance to the village, Hong was enraged and ordered his warriors to attack. Father fought them valiantly, but he was no match for the combined force. He… he lost enough energy fighting them that they were able to gang up and…"

Her voice had dropped an octave now, but she managed to keep going. "Word reached the palace, and I was devastated. I wanted revenge on those dogs so badly, so I took what was left of our fighting force, along with Xun- he was our most trusted assassin at the time. If there was ever a problem in the village, well… let's just say he would dispatched to take care of the situation. Zhong was the weapon smith at the time, so he had created fresh spears for the army beforehand. We set off at night to launch a counterattack on the village."

This part of Lan's story was starting to sound scarily familiar to Shen's, and he listened with great interest as she continued with her sad tale.

"The foxes were quite literally no match for us. Xun only had to take care of a few that tried to escape. I finally confronted Hong, weak and pathetic without his warriors to back him up. He spat that I was a bad omen, that I would always have evil in my heart. I killed him on the spot, I was so enraged. But looking around, I finally realized what I'd done. There were mothers without children, children without parents, and bodies everywhere. That night, they burned the palace down for revenge… and I finally realized what I'd become, what I was turning myself into. I hated it."

Shen was bewildered and saddened all at the same time. This was not unlike how he attacked the panda village-out of anger at the soothsayer's prophecy. Unlike Lan, he hadn't even felt the tiniest bit remorseful for what he'd done- but perhaps that was about to change.

"That night, standing beside the creek, I had an idea as I watched some orchid petals blowing away into the wind. I would run away from this life that I hated so much, and make a new identity for myself. I asked Xun and Zhong about it- Xun was a little hesitant at first, but we were able to persuade him with time. I asked one of my friends, another female peacock, to paint herself white and red and to lay very still by the creek, making it appear as if I'd been attacked. We made our escape very quickly, lest any of my mother's guard try to catch us in the act. We covered up our tracks as best as we could, just hoping that our plan would work… and it did. Everyone believed that I was dead. I made my way to Gongmen City, and was surprised that everyone was so easy to forget about me. I lived in that city for ten years, teaching myself how to act like a passable commoner and other useful skills, before moving to the outskirts and living there for two years."

"Then I heard what had happened to you, Shen. I wanted so badly to help you- but how could I, when I was nothing more than a commoner now? You were too far in the grips of darkness to possibly help, anyway. I had no idea what went on in the harbor, but… then I realized that I could finally help you." Lan ended, silence passing between the two almost immediately afterward. Shen finally reluctantly speaks up after a few moments.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" His voice sounded almost deceivingly calm, but Lan had to be careful. She'd heard this tone of voice before, and more often than not it signified the calm before the storm.

"I didn't want you to refuse medical treatment. I thought you might turn out to hate me even more if you figured out that I was a member of the family that turned their backs on you. But you needed my help."

"But why did you save me? I tried to take over China, I've… I've done so many things that are wrong by anyone else's standards." Shen muttered to himself.

"Is China really what you wanted, cousin?" Lan questioned gently, turning to look directly at her relative. "Or did you want someone to finally recognize you for what you'd done?"

Shen, for once, couldn't formulate an answer to the question. Tears sprang to his eyes as he came to a sudden realization- Lan may have been the one person in the world who actually knows what he wanted out of his rule over China. Even when he'd experimenting with fireworks, he'd always wanted someone to finally congratulate him for a job well done, to pat him on the back and say what a great feat he'd accomplished. Yet what had they done? Banished him and shut the palace doors behind him forever, that's what.

"Crying releases inner emotion, Shen. Don't be afraid to cry." Lan announced, withering a bit under the glare he throws in her direction.

"Crying is weakness." he hissed, trying to look anywhere but at Lan.

"You cried all the time when you were a chick."

"I was a fool. I was weak then." Shen snarled, his eyes smoldering with hate for a moment.

"You're not weak. You're the strongest peacock I know." That statement completely threw him for a loop, and he dwelled on the subject for several moments afterwards. Strong? Pff, as if. All his life, he'd trusted his wolves and cannons to do the dirty work for him, only fighting himself as a last resort. The blades hidden in his feathers were really more for self-defense than slaughtering. He was no better than this Hong that Lan had spoken of, except that he wasn't entirely crippled. He could be, though, considering the sorry condition he was still in.

"Did… did you ever come visit me? You know, when I was a hatchling?" The term sounds almost foreign on his tongue- he hasn't thought about being a hatchling since who knows how long. But maybe Lan bringing up any occasions will refresh his memory.

"Oh yes, plenty of times. I remember how we used to play hide-and-seek in the courtyard… it took us no time at all to find each other. We never blended into anywhere that we hid. I remember how you fell in the pond once, too… that must be what spawned your fear of water…"

Shen remembered that time, how he'd clung to the soothsayer's robes for hours afterward, refusing to go within a foot of the blasted water source.

"Then there was your first childhood crush- you do remember _that,_ I hope?"

Oh yes. Shen, as a matter of fact, recalled it quite vividly.

_His first crush had actually been on a young antelope named Ling. Unaware at the time to the complications of opposite-species romance, he'd clung to her like a quill on a porcupine, relentlessly following her all around the city, to the point of being in the beginning stages of stalkerism. Lan-it had been Chang then, had teased him about it vigorously. _

"_Shennnn and Liinngg, sittin' in a treeee, K-I-S-S…"_

"_Shut up, Chang." he'd hissed at her, looking with awe-stricken eyes at his first love._

"_Admit it, you totally love her." she'd teased, giggling loudly._

"_I do not."_

"_Do."_

"_Do not."_

"_Totally do."_

"_DO NOT- okay, fine, I like her. But just like friends, see?" _

"_Surreee you do." Lan giggles._

"_Just go buy flowers or something for me, okay! I know she likes roses- just with the thorns removed so they don't prick her." _

"_Fine. See ya later, Romeo." As she skipped off, she shot one last jibe in his direction. "Tell her she completes you! That always works!"_

_Facepalm._

He almost smiles at the memory before catching himself just in the nick of time.

"So, do you like me as Chang, or Lan?" Lan spoke up, shuffling her feathers awkwardly.

"Lan's easier to remember." he mused, looking at Lan. "But look, you don't have to be afraid of being a royal…"

"Look, Shen, half of the Chinese population thinks I've been dead for the past twelve years. I want it that way. I don't want people to remember me as the monster who almost murdered an entire village of foxes, I want to be known as the compassionate commoner who does all she can to help others." Lan spoke, glaring a bit up at Shen.

Her words sink right to his very core. Was he considered a monster because he'd done much the same thing? He'd spared a few pandas, yes, but only to remind people of just what he was capable of, and that he had no qualms about repeating the act twice if need be.

He was snapped out of his fantasies as Xun and Zhong came rushing in, swarming all over the duo.

"I have the feeling that you told him." Xun said, smiling up at Lan.

"I told him, all right." Lan pronounced, standing up slightly. "C'mon. Let's go home."

* * *

><p>Shen, surprisingly, chose to sit closer to Lan than he normally did at breakfast, and she caught him sneaking the occasional glance over at her as they eat. Lan, unfortunately, is way more observant then Shen first imagined, and she's quick to shoot a sarcastic remark in his direction.<p>

"You know, if you're trying to flirt with me, you're making it painfully obvious."

Shen had muttered something about indigestion and stalked off to the garden, leaving half of his plate unfinished. Zhong was only too happy to clean up the remains, in typical raccoon fashion. What's possibly even stranger, however, is that Shen took Xun and Zhong up on knife-throwing practice.

Sure, his criticism proved to be anything but helpful at the best of times-and traces of his old temper were still evident in his tone- but he seemed grateful that the duo was slowly but surely beginning to improve their aim under his watchful eye.

"Stand up straight, raccoon, you can't be hunched over when you're throwing a knife… and Xun, face it the right way, or else you're going to get a rather nasty chest wound." Shen's tail feathers flared up a bit in exasperation as he watched the duo feebly try to obey his commands. Really, the only reason he'd even taken them up on this stupid offer was to keep them out of his hair. Evidently, it wasn't working as well as he'd hoped.

"Zhong, you're supposed to be the weapon smith, so show some weapon smarts, for crying out…"

"Dude, I only made the weapons. It's not like I actually handled them or anything." Zhong grunted out, throwing the knife at a makeshift target in the center of the garden. It hit right in the center with a dull thud.

"Bulls-eye! You did it, Zhong!"

"I did… I mean, uh, yeah, I totally did it. Bow before my awesomeness! I am the all-mighty knife thrower!"

"The only thing you're going to be is almighty tired if you keep prancing around like that. Just because you hit a bulls-eye doesn't mean you get to tell the whole world about it." Xun hissed.

"Well, I hit a bulls-eye, didn't I? That's better than you, you can't even hold it right!"

"Dude, I'm like _this _close to sinking my fangs into that bushy little tail of yours." Xun took a moment to flare his fangs out as a warning.

"I do not have a bushy tail! Take that back!"

"Huh, Shen's tail is twice as awesome as yours."

"It's not my fault everybody other than me has a perfect tail, twig-head!"

"Long-nose!"

"Big-brain."

"_You take that back right now, mister!"_

The duo proceeded to roll around in the dirt for a few moments, kicking and calling each other names all at the same time. Lan chuckled to herself as she watched them. "All right, you guys, break it up."

"Yeah, well, he started it. He told me I couldn't even hold the knife right..."

"Well, then, work on your muscle strength. But you guys are friends, you really shouldn't be fighting each other."

The two gave each other sheepish smiles before Zhong reluctantly agreed to show Xun some tricks, and the two walked off as though nothing ever happened.

Shen, meanwhile, is utterly bewildered at the sight. "Do they… uh… always do this?"

"Constantly. I can't tell you how many times they get into fights over the most ridiculous things. But they make up eventually- I mean, there was one time when they wouldn't speak to each other for a week- but they're best friends."

Shen just shook his head and looked back to where Xun is trying-albeit unsuccessfully-to throw a knife right into the center of a tree. Friends. When had he ever had someone he could truly call a friend? Of course, there had been the wolves-but they had been more of bodyguards than friends, and he'd killed their own leader in the end. Any friendships that he'd had with the townspeople had faded away after his exile, and his parents… he couldn't bring himself to finish the thought.

"Look, Shen… I realize that we may have gotten off on the wrong foot when we met, and… I'd like to give you a second chance. It's like I said to Xun and Zhong, friends shouldn't be fighting…" Lan's voice rang out in the background, and Shen turned his head toward her to hear the offer.

Normally, he would have bristled with rage at the very thought of being friends with anyone. But now- now he's not so sure. "I guess… we could be… friends." Shen pronounced slowly, the term sounding almost bitter on his tongue.

"Heeelppp!" A sudden yelp distracted the duo, and they turned to see Xun pinned up against the bark of the tree, his midsection wrapped tightly around the knife handle.

"How the…. _how _did that even happen?" Lan asked, stepping up to take a closer look at the damage.

"I… dunno… I threw the knife and was kind of… coiled around it at the same time." Xun finished, his head drooping pathetically.

"Shen, do something!" Lan hissed, looking at him with slight exasperation.

"Why should I? It's his own fault that he got into this mess, and he can get himself out of it." Shen scoffed, turning to go back into the house.

"_Shen!"_

Giving a heavy sigh, Shen crossed over to the tree, slowly grabbing Xun's midsection and unwrapping it from the knife, watching as the snake plopped to the ground with a dull thud.

"My tail… oh, I think it's broken or strained or something!"

"Stop your whining, snake. It's not broken, it's just… dented." Shen finished, painfully aware that his excuse is rather pathetic. Well, if the snake can still complain at the top of his lungs, he's bound to be at least fairly unharmed. Yanking the knife out of the tree none too gently, he crossed over to where Lan is looking over Xun, nodding to herself every now and then.

"Your tail's bruised a bit, but I think it'll be fine." Lan announced, standing up and exhaling a quiet sigh of relief.

Xun glanced up at Shen from where he had been laying. "You… you helped me, dude. Thank you."

"What are friends for?" Shen said quietly, and everyone stared at him in bewilderment for a moment before Xun decided to wind himself around Shen's wing as a silent expression of thanks.

"Don't push it, snake. Just because I saved you doesn't mean that I suddenly have a soft spot." Shen growled, stalking off to the house.

* * *

><p>The night proves to be quiet and peaceful, with crickets chirping in the distance. Lan has made a sudden decision to move into Shen's room, sleeping on the small mat she brought in to lay upon. She claimed it was just to monitor his condition, in case the cold he had a few days ago suddenly returns, but Shen knew enough about Lan now to know that that's probably not the case.<p>

The leaves in the bushes outside rustled, and Shen bolted upright, peering out the window to see what it was that made such a sound. Unfortunately, it's pitch-black outside, so he couldn't see much of anything. Resigned, he lay back down, trying to reassure himself that it was just the wind blowing through the leaves.

The rustle sounds again, only louder this time, and Shen decided to send out a low warning hiss, just to remind whatever it was that they probably shouldn't be messing with him. Grabbing one of his knives, he walked over to the other side of the room, standing like a silent guard against the opposite wall.

He only had to wait a few moments before the window collapsed in on itself, five furry shapes forcing their way through it. Shen turned to warn Lan, but found himself face to face with glowing, sinister-looking eyes. The same eyes he saw glittering from the bushes a few days ago at the campfire.

Wolf eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Okay, seriously, this is like the longest chapter for something I've ever written. Also, while writing this I realized that my username has been spelled wrong all this time. FAIL. Also, yay. MOAR CLIFFHANGERS! Yeah, I'm an evil person who likes to slowly torture my readers. XD I kid, I kid.

About Lan- I wrote her whole history before Kung Fu Panda 2, so I apologize if it sounds almost scarily similar to Shen's. Originally, she was going to be an OC for a Crane fanfic I was going to write(btw, I'm not a huge Crane fan. Sorry to you fangirls/guys of him- his voice kind of annoys me, for some reason) and was going to be a love interest for him. Well, that idea was pretty quickly scrapped.

Hong was in there, too... who knows, I might just write a separate fanfic on him if I get enough inspiration. The story behind his cripplement might be fun to figure out. I guess I should put up the name translations now, shall I?

Hong- great, vast  
>Ling- alert, quick<p>

Please read and review!


	8. Attack and Kidnapping

**WARNING:** This chapter does contain a few spoilers from Kung Fu Panda 2, so if you haven't seen it yet, you might want to skip over most of the dialogue in the beginning half.

* * *

><p>Shen quickly recognized the face of the wolf, smirking slightly. "Chao. Never thought I'd see your filthy face around these parts… but I've been proven wrong before."<p>

"Don't try to flatter me with pleasantries, Shen." The wolf growled, immediately taking up a fighting stance while his eyes narrowed, shooting the peacock a glare that could have flooded the coastlines.

"Hmm, still sore over the whole "killing of your sibling" thing, I see." Shen mused, still keeping a steady hand on his knives. One could never tell with wolves.

" If you honestly think I wasn't affected by that, than you're even crazier than I originally thought. Hua was my brother. Not only that, he was the leader of our pack. You're going to pay for what you did to him." Chao unleashed a venomous growl from the pits of his throat, trying his best to look threatening. The insult, however, slid right off Shen's back, only momentarily ruffling him.

"Five wolves does not count as a pack." Shen sneered. "Not a very well-functioning one, either."

"There are more of us, idiot." Chao finally noticed Lan in the corner of the room, a smirk worming onto his features. "Well, I never thought it was possible, Shen, but you've finally got yourself a girlfriend… wonder what the heck she sees in you, anyway. It can't be your personality, that's for sure."

"She _is not_ my girlfriend." Shen hissed, raising his knives slightly. "Now why don't you and your henchmen crawl back to the hole you came out of, while your skulls still remain in their sockets?"

Chao growled out, raising his fist. He was obviously on the breaking point of harming Shen, but a voice rang out from the corner just in the nick of time.

"Chao, you would be wise to contain that temper of yours. Leave them to me. I have something special in mind for the peahen." A silver fox slipped out of the shadows, stepping closer to Lan. "Ah, Chang, my dear. However did you end up in a place like this? You are royalty, after all… you shouldn't be hanging around with these fools."

"Jun." That one word is hissed with so much intensity that it could burn someone, as Lan ruffled out her feathers, a strange gleam entering her eyes as she stared the fox down. She actually looks intimidating for the briefest of seconds.

"Ah, so you two know each other." Shen spoke up from the corner of the room.

"Jun was Hong's deputy of sorts before he died. He, along with several other foxes, managed to escape the wreckage of the village. He's been trying to take revenge ever since." Lan finished, glaring up at Jun.

Jun, meanwhile, turned back to the troops. "Kill them all, except little Chang here. We can get good ransom for a princess-imagine how the village would react if they found out that their dead ruler has been alive all these years."

The wolves close in, and one grabbed Lan, resulting in some rather foul oaths spewing from her beak. "Let go of me, you slimy, good-for-nothing, mange-ridden.."

"Mange-ridden? Now that seems just a bit degrading, don't you think?" Jun snickered, looking over Shen as he does so. "The infamous Lord Shen. Funny, I didn't imagine you to be hiding out in a hut- I thought the cannon would have finished you off for sure. Fortunately, we have no use for you… however, those feathers of yours will make a lovely mantelpiece decoration." he cackled, stepping back to let the wolves do the work.

Shen, meanwhile, smirked to himself slightly, twirling his blades in the air expertly. _Only five wolves? This is going to be way too easy._ The first wolf dashed forward, obviously a yearling with no experience in combat training. Didn't he know not to go rushing into things without a good fighting force to back you up? Shen ducked under his outstretched arms, shoving the knife up and into his chest. The yearling was dead before he even knew what hit him, his body hitting the floor with a dull thud.

The other wolves hesitated momentarily- after all, they worked beside Shen once, and they of all people know just what he's capable of doing to his enemies. But that won't stop them, and they surged forward with renewed strength as Shen silently cursed to himself. His army, the force he spent so long in building and convincing to come over to his side, were now his worst enemies. _Of all the rotten luck…_

Dragon took out two more wolves, but Shen has suddenly realized that the group did bring along some fox reinforcements- and everybody knows that foxes are far less dim-witted than wolves. They managed to overwhelm Shen, rendering his knives useless as they pinned him to the floor, snarling in his face and shouting out jeering mocks.

Xun and Zhong bolted into the room just in time, though.

"Look, I may not know a lot of things, but one thing I do know… _NO ONE_ touches my favorite peacock!" Zhong snarled, leaping into the air and wrapping his tail around one of the fox's throats, dragging him to the floor and off of Shen.

Xun, meanwhile, flared his hood out in true cobra fashion, letting out a fairly dangerous-sounding hiss as he prepared to take on two vixens that had him cornered. Wrapping his long tail around the left female's legs, he yanked savagely on the appendages, causing the vixen to fall head over furry heals to the floor, and a quick bite is rather efficient at silencing her screams.

The second vixen, recovering from her shock, swung a heavy fist at Xun's head, and he sailed across the room, colliding with the wooden wall with a sickening thump as he was knocked unconscious.

"Xun!" Zhong had just enough time to scream out the single phrase before he suffered the same fate.

Shen, meanwhile, was fighting for both his life and Lan's. Throwing Dragon in the direction of the vixen who was standing over Xun and Zhong's limp bodies, chuckling with glee, he allowed himself a small smirk as the knife hit a solid bulls-eye. He did wonder, momentarily, why he was bothering to help Lan-after all, why should he owe anything to the peahen that's constantly gotten on his nerves over the last few days?

Hearing a low cackle, he turned to see Chao standing over him, a wide smirk pinned to that stupid face of his. "You're too late, Shen. We've got your little princess, and now Hua will be avenged."

"You know, normally I'd say sorry for your loss, but seeing as I caused it.." Shen snarled, leaping into the air in the hopes of taking Chao's head off with one lethal down stroke. Chao's fist connected solidly with his head, shattering the dream, and Shen, groaning in pain, sank to the floor. He heard Jun yelling out an order to retreat before something heavy and blunt slammed into his skull.

Then everything goes black.

* * *

><p>Lan awoke with a start to find chains wrapped solidly around her legs and feet, holding her to a large stone wall. Lan glanced up at the ceiling slightly, to learn that it, too, was made of stone. Yep, it's official- she's undeniably trapped in a dungeon. <em>Oh joy.<em> The sound of footsteps rang out into the air, and Lan tilted her head to try and see what was making all the racket. She didn't have long to wait to find out.

Jun entered her stall with two wolves flanking him, and Lan gathered enough energy to sneer out a sarcastic remark. "What's the matter, Jun? Getting so weak these days that you need larger canines to back you up?"

"Consider yourself lucky that I'm being generous enough to keep you alive, brat." Jun snarled, his eyes blazing with hatred. "This is just a little payback for what you did to our village."

"Jun, I've changed since then. Honestly." Lan spoke out, sounding truely sympathetic as she does so- however, Jun was smart enough to not fall for the trick.

"That's what they all say." Jun sneered as he held a small bowl out to her. "Now eat."

Lan stared down at the bowl, trying not to protest at the sight of the maggot-filled, rancid-smelling meat. _They honestly expect me to eat this garbage? A starving vulture wouldn't touch this crap! _"I'm not eating anything you give me, Jun." Lan muttered, her words dripping with acid.

"Fine. It's no concern of mine whether you starve or not. You should be a little more thankful that we rescued you from Lord Shen, of all people."

"What did you do to him?" Lan snarled, twisting around in her chains.

"Oh, don't worry. His former guards took care of him quite nicely." Jun sneered, being so close to Lan's face that she could actually smell his rotten breath. "That little cobra and raccoon of yours, too. There's no one to save you, so don't even think about trying to run off. You're our slave now, and we'll decide what happens to you."

"You insolent little…" Lan growled out, before having a sword pointed at her throat.

"I have no problems with ending your life right here and now." Jun growled, his eyes narrowing into black slits. "The more you cooperate, the less you'll be harmed, so if I were you I'd sit still and shut up."

"What makes you think that you flea-bitten mongrels have any sort of authority over me?" Lan sneered, her face contorting in rage. "Sooner or later, someone will realize that I'm in here." She proceeded to kick the meat bowl into Jun's face to wrap up the insulting.

"You had your chance, Princess. Tomorrow you will die a slow and painful death." Jun snarled, wiping the rancid meat off of his face before departing with his guards.

The rest of the prisoners cowered in their cells, painfully aware of just what Jun could be capable of doing to the peahen- it's bad enough that he's already giving her death threats. They shivered even more as agonized screams rang out from Lan's cell, cursing and crying at the same time.

"You cowards! Shen, Xun, Zhong, _anybody!_" Lan collapsed to the floor of her cell, screaming as loud as she possibly could, even though she knew that there's no one around to hear her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Lan kind of suffers a nervous breakdown at the end- just in case anyone's wondering. She's strong around Jun, but he's just led her to believe that three of her best friends have died, so I can't say I exactly blame her. Don't worry, they'll be rescuing her in the next chapter. Hopefully. You know, if I'm feeling generous and don't give Shen a huge concussion from whatever just hit him on the head...

Silver foxes are really a subspecies of the Red Fox- they just have a lot less pigment in their fur. Hua is the Wolf Boss, btw. Yeah, I killed him off in this particular fanfic. Sorry to all of you who are fans of his. And yes, I know that this chapter is painfully short, but I needed to end it in a good place. The next chapter is going to be _super_ long, trust me.

This is going to be the last chapter for awhile, though. We're going on a two-week long vacation from July 2nd to the 17th, and while we will have a Mac with us, the only document thing it has on it is TextEdit- which I don't think the Doc Manager accepts. So you'll have to wait a long longer for updates than usual... sorreh. :(

Chao- surpass  
>Hua- magnificent<br>Jun- ruler, supreme


	9. Awakening and Decisions

The pain from a few days ago was back-that was the first thing that the peacock lord registered. Stars danced through Shen's vision as he lifted his head slowly, and he winced, dropping his head to the ground limply. Whatever had hit him in the head had certainly done a number on him, and Shen was quickly becoming convinced that he had at least a minor concussion from the impact. _Oh yes, just what I need- another ailment to add to my long list. _Loud groaning came from slightly to his right, and he turned to see that Xun and Zhong were beginning to wake up. Surprisingly, he felt immensely glad that they were relatively unharmed.

"Ugh... what just happened?" Zhong exclaimed, sitting up slowly.

"To put it in simple terms, we got the crap beaten out of us by a bunch of dogs that smell like feet." Xun pronounced, slithering up to Shen's side. "Not to mention that they took Lan."

"They did... _they took Lan?_" Zhong whispered, shooting an angry glance at Shen. "I thought you were holding those guys off to keep them from taking her!"

"I did my best, raccoon. If you honestly think you could do better, be my guest." Shen glared down at him, hissing a bit. The fools, did they not realize that he had been greatly outnumbered and half-asleep on his toes? "Given the fact that you two are absolutely _hopeless_ at knife-throwing, I don't have high expectations for you."

"Well, we are going to save her, right?" Zhong pleaded, looking up at both of his friends with large eyes.

"Dude, did you even see how many of those wolves there were? We'd probably be killed before we even got to Lan." Xun pronounced, and Shen shot him a strange look at the sudden knowledge. "What? I am capable of being sensible, you know. I used to be an assassin..."

"We can't just give up on her! Shen, you have to! I know you two don't exactly get along all that well... but you have to try!"

Shen leaped forward, pinning him to the floor and glaring down at him. "Now, if you'll be so kind as to listen to me... _put the thought out of your mind_. We're in no condition to be rescuing anyone, and it's the middle of the night. Unless they left some sort of tracks for us to follow, tracking them will be impossible until morning."

Zhong's ears lowered a bit as he stood, his tone low and flat. "I really thought you had it in you, Shen. You should know better- friends don't leave friends behind." With that, he vanished into the side room, despite Xun's cries to come back.

"I'll go talk to him. But you're right, we shouldn't try to track her until morning, at least." Xun slithered out of the room, leaving a very bewildered Shen to ponder over what he had just heard.

* * *

><p>Lan woke up to sun streaming down through the windows of her cell, and she winced as the light flooded into her pupils. Sighing, she absentmindedly stared at a spiderweb near her chains, watching as the tiny insect worked hard on building its web. It was so delightfully dreary in Jun's dungeon- she hadn't even been here for a full day, and already she was bored out of her mind.<p>

Sounds of footsteps came from down the hall, signifying that Jun and his guards were making their daily rounds. Lan wasn't nearly as concerned about it as she should have been, watching with feigned interest as the fox entered the cell, flanked by the usual two wolves.

"Have a nice sleep, my dear?" She managed to catch the underlying message in his lyrics- he's trying to provoke her into a snappy response. Well, he's going to have to try a bit harder than that.

"I've had worse. If you don't mind, though, I'd like some breakfast... and certainly not that rubbish you gave me yesterday."

"Of course. Guards, get her something decent to eat." Jun said, gesturing at the nearest wolf.

"Sure, boss... err... what the heck do peacocks eat, anyway?"

Jun rolled his eyes slightly. "How should I know what a stupid bird is supposed to eat?"

_Idiots. _Lan smirked to herself, speaking up. "Fruit will suffice."

The wolves were only too happy for an excuse to escape Jun's wrath as they left. Jun smiled before turning back to Lan. "Now, you'll be happy to know that I have decided to spare your pitiful life... however, tomorrow you will be taken to the village where you grew up, and presented before your darling parents. No doubt they will be most pleased that you're alive, and will offer us a large ransom. If not, well... we have ways of making even royalty doubt their decisions."

"You jerk..." Lan hissed, only to have Jun's sword-point flick up against her throat. Fortunately, she's developed an immunity to having sharp objects pointed at her, and she simply resorted to stubbornly clamping her beak shut.

"Be glad that I'm sparing you, Chang. I'm already beginning to have doubts about the decision as it is." Jun hissed before departing from the cell.

Lan, meanwhile, sank back against the wall, thankful that she's at least been spared from the death sentence. Sure, her lies are going to be revealed to the world, but that's far from the worst that could happen to her... right?

* * *

><p>Shen paced around the room, muttering to himself. He had quite a dilemma on his hands- rescue Lan, or leave her to an uncertain fate? On one hand, he could quite easily be lured into a trap if he goes to rescue her- on the other, leaving her behind would be the cruelest thing he could do to her. <em>Why should I care what happens to her? We don't get along at the best of times, and... <em>He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. He does care for Lan, he's realized that, but to pursue her without a reason would be both risky and reckless. What would his parents- no, he couldn't think about them at a time like this, that would only make him doubt himself...

He hissed ill-temperedly, throwing a knife into the air almost absentmindedly, not even caring whether it actually hit anything or not. Darn this entire situation, it was making things so confusing for him. Should he go, or should he stay? Shen thought over Zhong's words from earlier- _friends don't leave friends behind. _He was right, he and Lan were friends, in a rather strange sense of the term. He couldn't just leave her at the hands of Jun and the wolves.

"We will rescue her." he announced, sighing as Zhong's face lit up at the news. "But it will be risky."

"Yes! Road trip, road trip, road..." The duo's chant was quickly silenced by Shen's glare, and they rushed out of the room to pack.

The wolves' trail was surprisingly easy to follow- the idiots had never been very good at covering their tracks- and they soon followed it to a small rope bridge, looking out across it. The bridge does look extremely rickety, and it's at least a two-hundred foot drop to the bottom of the ravine, but if this is the only way to get to Lan, Shen would gladly cross it.

"Uh... do we seriously have to cross that?" Zhong asked nervously, looking down into the abyss it was hanging over. "Can't we just fly across it?"

"My wing is still healing, so this is the only way." Shen announced, looking down at Zhong with barely disguised contempt in his eyes.

"Yeah, I know, it's just... I'm a _teensy _bit afraid of heights..." Zhong said, bowing his head sheepishly as Shen's loud chuckles rang out.

"A raccoon who's afraid of heights?"

"It's not that rare of a fear..." Zhong muttered, glaring up at the peacock. "There's no way I'm going to cross that thing."

Xun coiled around Zhong's body, shielding his eyes with his long mid-section. "It's okay, I can act as a blindfold. Just don't look down, all right?"

Shen started across the bridge with the duo in tow, trying his hardest to ignore the occasional complaint from Zhong.

"I'm getting splinters all over me, dude!"

"Just keep walking forward, and don't look down." Xun hissed, the tone of his voice beginning to give away his rising temper.

"GAH! I looked down!_ I looked down! _Oh, man, this bridge is really rickety... what if it falls? I really think a few of these boards could stand to be replaced..." A loud hiss from Xun interrupted any further complaint.

It takes every ounce of chi that Shen can muster to not cut the ropes holding the bridge and send them both hurtling into the ravine. _Honestly, how these two managed to become servants to a royal family is beyond me. _

Having safely crossed the bridge- albeit with a bit of whimpering on Zhong's part- they reached a large, looming fortress by mid-afternoon, which was guarded by two menacing wolves.

"Well, if that isn't a castle, I don't know what is." Zhong whispered as he kneeled in the underbrush along with Xun and Shen.

"You two, try to stay hidden. I'll take care of the guards." Shen muttered, glancing over to where the wolves were peering into the forest. Only two guards? This was going to be way too easy. Stepping out where the wolves could see him, he tried his best not to chuckle as they glance bewilderedly at him before letting out loud snarls.

"You there, turn around and go back. We don't take kindly to trespassers around here." The first one snarled, his ears flattened against his head.

"Yes, well, given the fact that both of you look like you'd absolutely_ love _to tear my throat out, I can see that." Shen said, snickering lightly. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to step aside..." He took a step forward, only to have swords point at his throat.

"Are you deaf, insane, or just stupid? Turn around and go back." The second one spoke up now.

"Hmm... perhaps a little insane, I must admit. Now, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You have no idea who you're dealing with." Shen's voice dropped an octave, warning of the consequences if they didn't heed his words.

"Yeah, we're dealing with some sort of mutated parakeet who has no idea what he's getting himself into." The first one smirked, shooting a smirk at the second one.

Shen's feathers bristled a bit with rage, a hiss threatening to explode from his beak. Did they honestly just have the nerve to compare him to a parakeet? Since when has he ever looked like one of those little twits? Better yet, they're actually laughing about it. Shen's temper flared wildly out of control before he could stop it, and he immediately took up a fighting stance.

Oh, it is _on_.

The two wolves ran forward, swords pointed straight at Shen as they prepare to spear him. He didn't wait for them, leaping up into the air at the last possible second, leaving the wolves to crash head-on into each other, some very colorful language exploding from their maws.

"Ooh... I'm so gonna _murder_ that stupid bird..."

"Where'd he even run off to, anyway?"

"Looking for something?" Shen's voice rang out, and the wolves turned to see the peacock lord crouched in the tree, a semi-moronic grin on his face as he stared the canines down.

"Gah! Get him, get the little sneak!" The first one shouted, trying with varying levels of success to bang his sword against the tree, in hopes of knocking Shen out of it.

"Little sneak? I'm not the one who came all the way to a wooden hut in the middle of the night to kidnap a princess." Shen yelled down, trying his best to provoke the wolves into making a stupid mistake.

It works almost too well. He's flung out of the tree as the second wolf yanked on the branch, sending it and its inhabitant tumbling to the ground. The aggressive caw that Shen had been holding back for so long finally exploded from his beak, as his tail feathers flared out almost of their own accord, his eyes narrowed into crimson slits as the wolves rush forward. He spun, brandishing his lance at the same time, and whipped it at the head of the first wolf. The canine ducked just in time, but wasn't fast enough to avoid Dragon rushing at his neck.

The second wolf became a bit bewildered at the sudden slaughter of his companion, but he soon recovered and rushed toward Shen again. The peacock chuckled to himself, whirling his blades. Sure, taunting these wolves who are bigger and stronger than him is just asking for trouble, but Shen could care less about such a matter. He hadn't felt this alive in many, many moons.

The wolf, however, isn't about to make the same mistakes as his comrade. When Shen leaped into the air for a second time, he yanked savagely on his tail feathers, causing him to crash to the ground. _Of all the stupid, simple tricks! _Shen hissed to himself, striking out with his metal talons at the wolf's face. A satisfying yelp rang out from behind him, signifying that the sharp appendages have hit their mark.

Xun slithered out of the bush, coming up beside Shen. "Need a little help?"

Normally, Shen would have hissed in rage at the thought of needing help from anyone, but he's eager to see just how Xun plans on taking down a wolf that's almost three times the size of him. "Go ahead."

The wolf simply jeered down at Xun, obviously not believing that such a tiny snake could lead to his downfall. "What's he gonna do, _nibble_ me to death?"

Xun only smiled, slowly beginning to inch his way up the wolf's body. "If that's what you want." Hissing, he struck at the wolf's neck with lightening speed, expertly leaving two small fang holes where his deadly venom had hit its mark. Screeching with pain, the wolf floundered into the forest, seemingly not even caring that he was turning his back on two very formidable enemies.

"He'll die within the hour, most likely." Xun smiled, slithering back to Shen's side. "I don't really like having to resort to biting someone that much, though- it takes a while to regenerate the venom, so don't expect me to do that too terribly much."

Shen can't say anything in reply as they make their way into the fortress- he's suddenly gained a newfound respect for the cobra, who has turned out to be a formidable foe. _He might prove useful in times to come. _A small bridge across a moat (which Shen eyed up with a mixture of disgust and fear) is the only way into the fortress, and the doors are heavily padlocked. They're no match for Shen's knives, however, as they viciously bite through the metal. The doors swung upon, and the duo rushed into the castle, trying to look for any signs that might signify just where they held the prisoners.

_We're coming, Lan. We're coming._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Yeah, remember when I said I wasn't going to update for a while? Well... I lied. Kinda sorta. I failed to realize that the computer had DocManager on it... I'm such an idiot sometimes. I'd like to point out a few things in this chapter, however. It seemed to me that Shen was straying just a _tad_ bit into "out of character" territory in some of the more recent chapters, so I tried to keep him more IC in this one.

a. When Jun is discussing what peacocks eat-(and I was actually big enough of a noob to look this up)- a peacock's normal diet consists of seeds, insects, fruits, small mammals and reptiles. Shen was probably thinking about how good of a snack Mantis and Viper would make when he met the Furious Five... *shot*

b. The "I think these boards could stand to be replaced" is a Horton Hears a Who reference. :)

c. You know Shen's got issues when he openly admits that he has issues.

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. Btw, those wolves at the gate DO NOT know Shen- for now, just assume that Jun recruited them somewhere along the line. Also, as a side note, I'm thinking about writing a story about Shen's life... I'll be posting a poll with possible titles soon.


	10. Rescue and Surprises, part 1

**WARNING:** This chapter does contain a scene that involves a character being beheaded (don't worry, it's none of the rescuers...), so if you're kind of squeemish about that sort of stuff, you might want to skip over the fight scene in the middle of the chapter.

* * *

><p>The trio entered the castle with no problems at all- but Shen figured that was only because they'd disarmed the only guards that Jun had to warn him of the intrusion. He knew that they had to think logically from this point on. "Xun, go ahead and scout out the area."<p>

"Okay… just asking, why do I need to scout out the area?" Xun replied, hissing a bit with excitement.

"It's because, if that fact isn't painfully obvious to you already, you're small and can slip into the nooks and crannies in here. Now move!" Shen hissed, watching as Xun beat a hasty retreat. Well, it seemed like being an evil warlord _did_ have its advantages after all- you learned how to plan attacks quickly and strategically.

"What can I do?" Zhong spoke up from where he was preoccupied with rolling a pebble across the floor. "I do wanna help, if it doesn't involve climbing anything…"

"You can stay here and wait until our reptilian friend comes back with information. I don't want you getting yourself into trouble just because you can't defend yourself." Shen muttered, absentmindedly polishing one of his blades.

Xun came rushing back, panting hard as he relayed the information. "There must be at least thirty wolves and foxes guarding this castle, not counting the ones we beat the crap out of… and already they're running around looking for us. We've gotta move."

"Right… how many could you take on?" Shen asked, hissing a bit in frustration when the snake didn't answer the question right away. The peacock had never been known for his patience, and this was no exception to the rule. He was in no mood to be waiting around for answers. "Answer the question, snake."

"At my best, probably no more than five." Xun replied, sheepishly glancing down at the floor.

"You, raccoon?"

"… I bet I could take out at least two if I really tried… possibly three…"

Shen sighed, doing some quick mental calculations. "Leaving twenty-two for me, I suppose." _Even at __**my**__ best, I don't think I would stand a chance against that many wolves. _This was going to require some heavily strategic thinking.

"Wait. If they come in groups, we could split the wolves up among each of us." Xun announced. "Like, say there were six wolves in a group. We could take out each of them in pairs of two as they come, unless they all try to rush us at once. Though, there is that fox to worry about…"

"That fox is so going down…" Zhong snarled, his ears pinning flat against his head. "I can't believe that jerk, stealing Lan…"

"Dude, chill out. We'll find Lan, but first we gotta take down all of these wolves." Just as Xun said that, four of the canines in question ran into the room, snarling.

"Kill the snake and the bushy ring-tailed thing…"

"For the love of the gods, I'm a _raccoon_!" Zhong muttered before Shen threw him one of his famous 'feel-free-to-shut-up-now' glares to silence him.

"Leave the third, though. Jun will love his decorative tail feathers, and we just might get some fun out of it, too…" The leader of the wolves cackled, earning himself a small, questioning look from his followers.

"But Zhi… Jun said he wanted all of them dead…"

"Who cares? He doesn't have to find out that we left the bird alive… and besides, I've always wanted to know what peacock tastes like." Zhi pronounced, waving his sword. "Finish them."

Two of the wolves ran towards Xun, who had already flared out his hood to make him look more menacing. Slipping between the legs of the one wolf, he wound his coils around the legs of the canine, causing him to land head-first onto the stone with a sickening crack. The other wolf was brought down with a small bite, howling in fright as he ran off.

Shen, on the other hand, had delivered a perfect roundhouse kick to a female wolf's head, whipping his lance at her and putting a small cut on her cheek. Whimpering with pain, she recoiled for a moment before viciously lashing out with her sword at his neck, seeming to momentarily forget her leader's orders to keep Shen alive. The peacock lord expertly blocked the blow with a knife of his own, flicking the sword out of her paws and slitting her throat in the same instant.

Zhi seemed momentarily ruffled that three of his best warriors had just been slain, but he recovered in the same minute, growling and raising his sword to strike at Shen's neck. Xun, however, had slithered over just in time to brutally smack the wolf in the stomach with his tail, causing Zhi to crumple to the ground while the snake leaned over him, flaring out his hood and hissing.

"Okay, I'm going to make this sound as simple as possible… you have ten seconds to tell us where they're holding the prisoners, or I will _not _hesitate to bite that flea-bitten neck of yours.

"Pff, I've been bitten by snakes before. I'll survive…" Zhi snarled, withering a bit at Xun's ferocious hiss.

"You haven't been bitten by a cobra yet… and we're highly venomous, if no one's told you. Either that, or a nice little knife sticking out of your side." Xun said, gesturing to where Shen still stood by the body of the female. "Your choice."

"All right, all right, all ready! Keep your fangs in! It's at the very end of this corridor. But you won't reach it, anyway. Half of the troops will be guarding the entrance. I hear Chao's pretty excited to be settling a score with you, Shen. You guys better hope that you don't run into Jun, either…" Zhi was interrupted by Xun coiling around his neck, jerking his head against the wall to knock him unconscious.

"What? He was getting on my nerves…" Xun retorted at Shen's look, slithering over to where Zhong was huddled behind a weapons rack. "Zhong, you can come out, you know."

"That was totally_ awesome_! I finally got to see Shen fighting! That was so cool, what with the knife-throwing and roundhouse kick and mmmph…" Zhong was interrupted by Shen clamping a wing over his mouth.

"Be quiet! Do you want to alert every single soldier in here to our presence?"

"I thought that was kind of the point." Zhong muttered, ignoring the raised eyebrow that Shen shot in his direction. "So, the dungeon's at the end of this corridor… sweet, we're even closer to it than I thought."

"You're starting to sound more and more like that idiotic panda.." Shen muttered, glaring at Zhong. "It is not 'sweet' at all. We are going up against trained wolves, so I'm trusting that you won't do anything stupid."

"I can help, though. Look, there's arrows and bows here…" Zhong said, picking the items up from the weapon rack. "These are one of the weapons that I _did_ use, and I was a fairly good shot…." He stared up at Shen with pleading eyes.

"Fine. But try to use the arrows sparingly, and only get a shot in if you absolutely can." Shen muttered, his feathers beginning to flare up a bit from exasperation. They _could not_ afford to wait around, they had to get into the dungeons and rescue Lan as quickly as possible.

The trio made their way down the corridor, cautiously peering about for any signs of reinforcements. A second batch ran in- only four wolves this time, two males and two females. Zhong's arrows took down two of them(proving that he was indeed a good shot), while Xun's swiftness and venom took out the remaining two.

* * *

><p>The last fighting force was stationed at the door to the dungeons, composing of three foxes. Dragon found and snuffed out two of them, and Zhong shot at the only one remaining. When the arrow missed its mark, Xun simply resorted to knocking the fox out by slamming her into the wall none too gently.<p>

"All right, the door to the dungeons! Whoo, we made it!" Zhong exclaimed, leaning against the solid oak door. "That was way too easy, only three fighting forces?"

"They wouldn't waste all of their fighting forces on us." Shen said simply, trying to fight the urge to lock the raccoon in a cell of his own for his stupidity. _Can't he even think sensibly for more than five minutes at a time?_

The door slowly swung open, revealing the inside of the dungeons- which, typical of dungeons, was filthy as it could be. Mold clung to the walls fiercely, a few small patches of moss clinging to the walls. The air seemed hot and heavy, rank with sickness and suffering. Shen stubbornly walked onwards, trying to ignore the whispers that rose from the cells about his color, who he was, what he had done in past years. Some of the prisoners even raised their voices to him, willing to ignore the horrible deeds he had done in the past, begging for help.

Shen walked stubbornly onward, not even pausing to listen to their cries- after all, he was no stranger to pain and suffering, considering he'd caused a great deal of it himself. Xun and Zhong, however, gaped at the misfortune all around them, whispering to themselves.

"Dude, there are… there are _kids_ in here!"

"Those jerks! I bet I could pick the locks if I tried hard enough…"

"Okay, let me do it… mmph… these are impossible to open…"

"We are_ not_ here to pick locks, we're here to rescue Lan and that is all." Shen hissed, glaring at the prisoners who were daring to whisper about his odd color. He knew he was white, he knew he was different. They didn't have to keep shoving it in his face.

"Don't you even_ care_ about these people, dude? They're… they'll die in here…" Zhong whispered, gazing at a small antelope girl that was huddling in a corner of the cage, the outline of her ribs showing against her thin white stomach.

For some odd reason, those words sink to Shen's very core. He tried to spit out a retort, but his throat felt strangely dry. _Don't you even care? _No. He'd never cared about anyone's wellbeing, except when he was a chick- but that had all changed with that prophecy, that _stupid_, worthless prophecy….

Why should he care whether these pathetic animals lived or died? It was their own fault that they'd gotten themselves into this mess. _If you don't care about anyone, then why are you rescuing Lan? _A little voice in his head rang out, taunting his actions.

"She's my cousin." Shen whispered to no one in particular, shaking his head slightly. "I can't just leave family to die."

"Ooh, sly dog. You like her…" Shen jumped as Zhong came stalking up to his side. Just how dang long had the raccoon been listening to him?

"I do not, raccoon." he hissed, shutting his eyes in annoyance.

"You loooveee her. You even tried to flirt with her at breakfast the one time."

"I _was not_ 'flirting' with her. I was merely observing her." Oh, how badly he wanted to spear Zhong on the end of his lance…

"If you guys are quite finished…" Xun slithered up, narrowing his eyes. "We're supposed to be rescuing Lan, remember?"

"He likes Lan, though…"

"I swear to any god who feels like listening, raccoon…"

* * *

><p>These cells seemed to stretch on forever. Shen had lost count of how many cells they had checked in for any sign of Lan- but no, it was always some antelope or rabbit or pig that had just so happened to get themselves caught by the canines in one way or another, pleading for any of the trio to save them. He'd even caught a few glimpses of Xun trying to pick the locks on the cages- with varying levels of success.<p>

"Is that all you.. mmph… got? I've seen better locks on.. restaurant doors…" Xun snarled, collapsing to the ground. "Okay, whoever made these things this damn hard to open is now officially an evil genius."

Sigh.

"Hey, Shen… I think Lan's in this cell!" Zhong's cry came from further down the hall, and the two raced forward to see the white peahen huddled in a corner of the cell, chains securely wrapped around her wings and feet.

"Those idiots… okay, don't worry, Lan, we'll get you out! C'mon, Xun, a little help here?" Zhong exclaimed, ramming his side into the door. "C'mon already… open, stupid door…"

Shen's knives viciously bit through the metal lock, causing it to swing open with an ominous creak.

"… Or we could just break the lock. Either way."

Lan, surprisingly, didn't move when the door opened, nor did her eyes light up in delight when Shen stepped closer. She almost seemed in a deep sleep…

"I think she's been drugged."

"Oh, well, that just makes our entire situation _so _much easier." Zhong muttered sarcastically, earning himself a hiss from Xun. "So, how long until it wears off?"

"It could be several hours, depending on how early they did this to her."

"Oh, great. So, we come here, beat the crap out of a couple of dogs, only to discover that this ass actually slipped powder into her food or something?" Zhong shouted.

"How many times do I have to tell you to shut that blathering mouth of yours?" Shen snarled, gripping Zhong's face none too gently in his metal talons. "We can still rescue her, but only if you'll actually help instead of screeching at the sky."

Zhong nodded, forcing his voice to come out through his clenched lips. "Yeah, sure… uhh… leggo."

Shen dropped Zhong to the floor, drawing Dragon and swiping through the chains. Lan stirred only momentarily, blinking at Shen through half-shut eyelids. "Mmm.. Shen? They said… said that you were… dead…"

"Do I look dead to you?" Shen snapped half-heartily.

"Lan, you're alive!" Zhong cried, nuzzling her. "But you do kind of smell funny.."

"Yeah, well, since when have evil warlords cared about their prisoner's hygiene?" Lan retorted, her voice slurring slightly. "Ugh, I don't feel so.. good…"

"That's because you've been drugged." Shen muttered, picking his blades up from the floor.

"But that doesn't really matter, 'cause we're gonna get you out of here…" Xun was interrupted by a loud cackle ringing out behind the four, and they turned to see Jun standing in the doorway to the cell.

The silver fox was holding his normal curving sword, a wide smirk pinned to his face. "Did you dolts really think it would be that easy?" He looked up at Shen, smiling. "So, my guards failed to finish you off. No matter, I will kill you myself."

Shen hissed at the fox, wanting to point out that the wolves had been _his _guards before the incident in the harbor- then again, most of the wolves had been killed by the boats blasting apart, and the remaining ones hadn't exactly been quick to forgive him for slaying their leader, fleeing to the four winds afterward.

"My soldiers were hardly a match for you. Let us see how much that term applies to me." Jun announced, twirling his sword in the air.

"A sword master fighting a sword master… how ironic and totally awesome!" Zhong's voice rang out, causing Shen to grit his beak in annoyance.

"Dude, just let them fight." Xun hissed, rolling his eyes.

"But this is so totally appropriate and cool…"

"_Shut the hell up already!" _

The two masters faced each other. None of them moved a muscle, each of them waiting for the other to begin an attack. Jun finally did just that, rushing forward with his sword raised. Shen saw the attack coming, and delivered a vicious down stroke towards the fox's head, who somehow managed to duck around it, letting out a feral snarl as he crouched low to the ground, sizing the peacock up silently. "Tell me, peacock… how do you want to die? Quick and painless, or slow and painful?"

Shen's only reply was to let out a low hiss, and Jun let a smile worm onto his face. "Slow and painful it is." Twirling his sword in the air, the silver fox ran forward, twisting at the last moment to try and spear Shen in the side. Shen, thankfully, managed to dodge to one side at the last possible moment, delivering a butterfly kick to Jun's stomach. In the background, he could hear Zhong doing a barely audible commentary on the whole fight- and he made a mental note to himself to beat the crap out of that idiotic raccoon afterwards.

Shen used his normal fighting tactics- the unfurling of the tail fan to distract the fox, trying to trip him up with the said feathers- but that stupid fox was just so dang _fast_, darting around almost every single one of his blows. Occasionally, his tail-feathers or knives did hit their mark, but Jun would recover in the same instant. It wasn't often that Shen got opponents that could actually match up to his skill level, but when they came along he was more than happy for the challenge, just so long as the fight didn't drag on for too long.

This fight, it seemed, had been going on for eons, and Shen was determined to end it. Jun had been a worthy foe(albeit a little too determined for his own good), but the peacock was determined not to loose to some flea-bitten canine- he _wouldn't_ lose, and that was that. He could see that the fox was slowly but surely beginning to wear himself down, now all he had to do was wait until Jun made a stupid mistake and cut him down like the coward he was.

The moment came much sooner than expected. "I… don't care… if it's the last thing I do… I _will_ take you down, peacock." Jun snarled, panting a bit from overexertion as he stood up from his crouched position.

"If it's the last thing you do, hmm? I think that could be arranged." Shen hissed nastily, watching as Jun's eyes lit up with rage before the fox leaped forward. In his mind, Shen calculated exactly where Jun was going to land, what move would be best to take him down.

_NOW! _He hissed to himself, whirling around and tripping the fox up with his tail-feathers, flicking his lance downward at the same moment. Jun was beheaded before he even knew what had hit him, his head falling to the floor with a dull thump.

Lan could do nothing but gape in bewilderment at the foe who had tormented her for so long, now lying dead in front of her. "You… you killed him…"

"I think I need to go and wash my eyeballs out…" Zhong muttered, and a few seconds passed before sounds of retching rang out from the corner.

Lan, meanwhile, had sunk down to the floor, suddenly weeping. "Oh… Shen… it was awful here, there's… there's kids in these cells, and they're starving them… and they said all of you were dead…" Xun and Zhong ran up to comfort her, but she simply shook them off, still continuing to shake with sobs.

Shen didn't know how to react to the sudden display of emotion- after all, he hasn't felt even remotely sympathetic towards someone since who knows when- but he knew he had to do something, anything, to comfort his (and he still inwardly flinched at the very usage of the term) friend. "We're not dead, as you can quite clearly see- and don't worry, we'll free those prisoners… somehow."

It was a fairly false promise- after all, he'd been letting Xun and Zhong do most of the work of freeing the commoners- but he had to comfort Lan, and in his mind this was the only way to do so. He actually momentarily scared himself at such a promise- since when has he started caring about anyone other than himself? Maybe all these sleepless nights were finally starting to catch up to him, to play games with his head…

"Good. I'm sorry, I was just so… worried…" Lan said, lifting herself up. "Right now, I think we've got to get out of here, though."

"What? Aren't we going to free those…" Xun asked, gesturing to the cells.

"It would take too long to free them all. See how many you can get out of this row." Lan said, watching as the cobra slithered up to the cells, adeptly picking the locks with his tail. A few of the prisoners hesitated at first, knowing what the consequences would be if they tried to escape- and very few of them actually wanted to travel with the infamous Lord Shen, no matter how desperate they were for someone to come and save them.

They came rushing out in time, though, and somehow a small group of them managed to find an escape tunnel to go through, that led far into the forest and away from the dreadful castle- Lan inwardly hoped that they would manage to escape without any difficulties, and that they would find a new life in the villages surrounding the fortress.

"Now, c'mon, we gotta get going!" Xun's voice spurred the other three into action, and they blindly ran toward the entrance without a thought.

Chao, along with the wolves and foxes who hadn't been sent to take care of the problem, stood on top of the parapet, watching as the four beat a fast retreat.

"Chao! The peacock's got Chang, and they're gettin' away!" A fox shouted from where he was hefting a small bow, notching an arrow to the string.

"Not for long, they aren't." Chao smirked, gazing down at the four as they came within firing range. "Let's see how Shen likes a taste of his own medicine."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Ooh, even more of the dreaded cliffhangers! What do you think Chao might mean by "taste of own medicine"? And no, I am SO not giving anything away about it, so don't even ask. Also, I took the job of trying to make Shen's fighting style a lot more lethal than in some of the previous chapters... and yes, I did copy some of his moves from the whole scene with the Kung Fu Council and all that. SUE ME. x.x

There are actually going to be two parts to this chapter, because it already takes up like twenty-plus pages in Word, and I don't want to overwhelm my fellow readers with ridiculously long chapters. So, look for the next part, coming soon. As a side note, I'll be posting the beginning chapters of a Shen-centered fanfic soon, so you guys will be looking forward to that, yesh? :)

Also, aww, Shen's comforting Lan. Sorta kinda, in a Shen-ish sort of way. He really does care.

Shen: I DO NOT!  
>Me: <em>Sure<em> you don't.

Zhi- will, purpose


	11. Rescue and Surprises, part 2

"Well, we got out of there much sooner than I thought we would…" Xun mused to himself as the four hurried toward the nearby forest.

"We also got out of there far too easily. It may be a trap." Shen mused, looking back at Lan to make sure that she was keeping up with the group- she was still half-drugged, after all, which was making her reflexes a lot slower than normal.

"Yeah, we… oh, _shit_…" Xun exclaimed, looking back at the fortress.

"What is it, dude?" Zhong asked from where he'd been riding on Lan's back (despite her attempts to make him reconsider the option).

"They've got _freaking cannons_! Move, move, move!" Xun's voice sprang them into action, and the group hurried forward at a renewed pace.

Shen, meanwhile, was starting to have a sinking feeling about this entire situation. He knew it, he knew they'd gotten away from that blasted castle far too easily to be a coincidence. _Where did these moronic canines even get cannons in the first place? _The peacock turned to look back at the castle, suddenly feeling very sick to his stomach. Was it just him, or did that cannon design look scarily familiar?

A faint command to fire came from the parapet, and a cannonball exploded from the source soon after. Yes, that cannon _was _familiar, the way the ammunition sparked and flew through the air- it was his own creation. Oh, great. Was anything else of his going to be used against him today?

"Shen! Move, man!" Xun's voice managed to snap the peacock lord out of his fantasies, but he turned a split second too late. Thankfully, the cannonball smashed into the forest underbrush beside him, missing him by a whole foot.

_Oh, bloody hell… _

"Aren't those your cannons?" Lan muttered, gaping up at the parapet of the castle.

"Yes." Shen hissed through a clenched beak, looking up at the castle and inwardly cursing every single person who lived there. "How they managed to rescue any from the wreckage of the boats is beyond me…" It was true- last time he'd seen any of these cannons, a good majority of them had been smashed to bits by the force of their own cannonballs being redirected back at them. How the wolves had managed to find any that only needed minor repairs was beyond him.

"We should probably run, then?" Zhong's voice sounded from where he was still huddled on Lan's back.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I definitely think we should run right about now." Xun spoke, looking up to see three more cannonballs hurtling towards them.

"Man, don't these guys ever quit?"

"Every man for himself!"

Triumph about Lan's freedom had quickly turned into panic- now, they had to fend for themselves, and none of them had any idea on how to redirect a cannonball. To date, no one had survived a blast from one of Shen's cannons- well, except the panda, but only because he'd lucked out and managed to find a metal bowl laying around that had somehow protected him from the majority of the blast. Unfortunately, Shen highly doubted that there were going to be metal bowls lying around in the forest.

Thankfully, most of the wolves commanding the cannons didn't have the best aiming skills in the world, so most of the cannonballs ended up ricocheting off of tree trunks or plummeting into the nearby forest. One, however, just barely missed Shen's tail feathers, which he had managed to whisk out of the way just in time. There was no doubt about it- the group was in serious trouble, unless the wolves somehow managed to run out of ammunition during the course of the attack.

The wolves, however, soon decided that it would be foolish to waste all of their cannonballs on a moving target, so the canines soon resorted to using arrows from their crossbows. Arrows were a lot easier to avoid than cannonballs, and Xun soon found that he could pick a few up with his tail, and with the help of a makeshift sling-shot that he'd made out of vines, propel them back toward whoever was firing them. Two wolves and four foxes were taken out in this manner.

Well, at least that was a small victory on their part. Now all they had to do was escape from this twisted, blasted…

Shen managed to skid to a halt before the ground dropped away into the water. Crap, he'd completely forgotten about the moat… oh gods, he wasn't going to have to actually_ cross_ that thing, was he? To get into that dark, slimy- and quite frankly, deep-looking water?

"C'mon, Shen, get in!" Xun's voice rang out from behind him. Oh, how badly he wanted to scream at that pathetic reptile, to tear his tiny little tongue out, but Shen's own tongue was caught in his throat, twisting into an unmanageable knot… oh gods, deep, dark, _slimy_ water… who knew what was lurking in there…

"Shen, get in and swim! It's just a little paddle." Oh, yes, easy for her to say, wasn't it? She hadn't been scared of getting even remotely near any body of water larger than a puddle ever since she was a hatchling. "Shen, c'mon. This isn't a pond. This is just a creek. You can actually swim across a creek." Lan spoke more gently this time, trying to spur her cousin on, but he was still hesitating.

"Uh… Shen? There are more cannonballs coming.." Zhong's voice rang out this time, and Shen had to use all of his self-control to not flare his tail feathers up. If everyone would just stop _rushing_ him for no apparent reason…

As it turned out, it wouldn't be Shen's decision to make as to whether or not he actually got into the water. The force of a nearby cannonball served to push the four into the water- which, surprisingly, wasn't nearly as deep as it first looked. Floundering about in the shallows, all four got up out of the water rather easily, though not necessarily in the calmest manner (Shen was still breathing rather hard at the sight of water all around him).

"We've got to swim across it.." Lan pronounced, staggering a bit as her claws sank into the mud.

"Y' know, Lan, normally I'd agree with you, but who knows what nasty stuff is in this moat? Isn't there a bridge or something we could cross?"

Lan proceeded to point at where the shattered remains of the footbridge, which had been hit by a stray cannonball, dangled by the side of the small moat.

"Oh, lovely." Xun said, sighing. "So now we've got to swim across this thing with wolves shooting at us all the way… and it turns out that Shen has a fear of water, too."

"I could knock him out, if you want." Zhong said, holding up a small tree branch that he'd found at the bottom of the moat.

"Uh… I'm sure that won't be necessary.." Lan muttered, rolling her eyes at Zhong's unorthodox method of dealing with the problem. _Males…_ "But I'm sure we can find a solution…"

"Yeah, well, we might want to duck…" Xun said, looking up at where more arrows were speeding towards them. The three of them ducked, Shen spluttering in indignation as his head was forced none too gently under the water by Lan.

Surfacing, Shen half-heartily gave Lan the nastiest glare that he could muster under the circumstances. "I hate you."

"Yeah, well, the feeling is mutual. Now, c'mon!" Lan grabbed Shen's wing and, quite literally, dragged him across the moat, half-running and half-swimming toward the other side, until the four arrived, panting and drenched, to the other side, where Shen proceeded to give Lan one of his 'please-don't-ask-me-to-do-that-again" looks.

Unfortunately, crossing the moat was the least of their worries at the moment – for who should be waiting for them on the other side but Chao, baring his teeth in a feral snarl.

"Crap, not this wolf again…" Xun groaned, slapping his tail over his face in what could only be called a facepalm- in snake terms, of course.

"Dude, there's, like, hundreds of wolves here. Get used to it." Zhong muttered, sliding down from Lan's neck to size up the canine.

"That's it, Shen. Take one more step and you die. You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment…" Chao growled, taking up a fighting stance.

"Actually, we can." Lan stated sarcastically, narrowing her eyes at the wolf. "Does the term 'hygiene' mean anything to you? I can smell you from all the way over here."

"Stay out of this…" Shen hissed silently. As much as he admired Lan for standing up to Chao, he did wish that his cousin would have a bit more common sense. He didn't want to see a family member get hurt- at least, not so soon after he'd rescued her.

"Actually, maybe I should take out all four of you. After all, the cannons didn't finish you off, and neither did arrows." Chao snickered, grinning.

"Yeah! I could take down five of you losers! I could maybe even take down twenty.." Zhong's rant was interrupted by Xun slapping his coils over his mouth.

"If only your brain moved just as fast as your mouth does." Lan muttered, standing. "Well, if this wolf wants a fight…"

"Uh.. Lan, I think you'd better let us handle this." Xun announced gently, smiling at Lan. "I think you're a little dizzy from the drugs, still…"

"I am not." Lan grumbled, her voice taking on an almost whiny tone. It would have been hilarious under normal circumstances, but the group was in no mood to be joking around about things. "Zhong, give me those arrows. We're taking this guy down."

"Ooh, teamwork! Teamwork's always a good fighting tool…"

"Get the dang arrows, Zhong." Lan hissed flatly, watching as the raccoon hoisted the bow and quivers. "Now, Xun, if you would do the honors?"

Fortunately for Xun, the wolf hadn't exactly been planning on an attack from below, and a quick tail-strike to the stomach soon brought the wolf down to his knees, while Zhong wrapped his bushy tail around Chao's legs to make sure he stayed in that position. Notching an arrow to the string, Lan quickly took aim and fired at the wolf's body. Unfortunately, the wolf had already shaken Zhong off, leaping for the raccoon in the hopes of putting an end to this torment.

Xun, however, was smart enough to see the blow coming, shoving Zhong to one side while letting out a brutal hiss at the canine. Shen half thought about jumping in, but he settled himself with the thought that at the first sign of trouble, then and only then would he help the trio out. Other than that, they were on their own.

Things were definitely not going well for Xun and Zhong, however, so Lan decided that she'd had enough. Two more arrows shot from her bow soon took down the wolf, and the two were left to wonder just what had happened.

"We had everything under control, you know…" Zhong muttered as the group continued their flight from the fortress. Thankfully, without their leader and second-in-command, the wolves and foxes had no idea what to do, or how to formulate a battle plan, so they had simply retreated from the castle, not willing or brave enough to fight such deadly foes.

"Under control, hmm? From where I standing, it looked like that wolf was going to tear you apart. Not to mention that he had a sword, so unless you guys really _enjoy_ being impaled…" Lan mused, chuckling at her friend's antics.

"Aww, c'mon. Another second and we would have had him." Zhong teased, catapulting off of a low-hanging vine as he did so.

"Another second and he would have killed you, raccoon." Shen finally spoke up from where he was walking alongside the trio. "Use common sense."

"My common sense tells me that we would've beaten the crap out of that guy sooner or later."

The four continued their debate as they headed into the forest, the horrors of the past few hours forgotten for the most part.

* * *

><p>They arrived at the house about mid-morning, and though everyone would have liked to get a good session of sleep in, it was agreed that someone had to stand guard in case any remaining wolves came back. Xun had willingly volunteered, but so far the only thing of interest that he'd found was a rabbit villager out collecting herbs. It seemed that the remaining canines had finally given up on their attempts to recapture Lan.<p>

"You fought well as a team." Shen mused from where he was sitting at the window, observing the sunrise. Even as he got older, the peacock had always held a love for the rising and setting sun, the way the sky painted itself orange, red, and on occasion, purple. He had lost a bit of interest in it during the whole attempted conquest of China, but now the interest was fully renewed.

"Yeah, well, we've had a lot of time to practice. Arrows were one of the weapons that I actually liked to use when I was a hatchling… so, I guess we kind of incorporated those into the fighting technique." Lan piped up from where she was huddled over what would be the morning's breakfast. "Out of curiosity, why did you come to save me?"

"Why?" Shen had to admit, he hadn't really had a reason at the time…

"Yeah. Not to be rude or anything, but I thought you hated my guts." Lan muttered, slowly chopping vegetables to put into a stew.

"That was before I found out that you were my cousin." Shen retorted, his feathers bristling a bit- he made a mental note to himself to try and correct that embarrassing habit later on.

"So, it was a family sort of thing?"

"… I suppose so." That, and the fact that he was starting to warm up to Lan ever so slightly. "Wait… is that _Dragon_ you're chopping vegetables with?"

"Uh… yeah. Is there a problem with that?" Lan questioned, still holding one of Shen's most prized possessions.

"Yes, there's a problem! Dragon is a self-defensive weapon, not something to cut up plants with!" There went the flaring of the tail feathers again- man, he had more annoying habits than he'd originally thought.

"Look, if it bothers you so much, I'll wash it right after I use it. Okay?" Lan said, watching as Shen's feathers flattened in resignation.

"Fine." Surprisingly, the fact that Lan was actually daring to cut up vegetables with his most prized knife didn't bother Shen nearly as much as he thought it would. Yes, he had been surprised and exasperated, yes, he had been momentarily ruffled- but his reaction wasn't nearly as vicious as it could have been. _I'm losing my touch…_

"Look, I was planning to go to the market later today… and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me." Lan softly inquired, now beginning to stir the soup.

"Why would that be?" Shen asked flatly, pondering over the offer. He'd never liked going to markets- they were far too noisy, too crowded, and everyone tried to con you into buying or giving up something. Once, a few months after he was banished, he'd gone to a small market where a sheep had tried to barter off his silk robe. Well, you can imagine how well _that_ particular encounter had gone.

"No offense, but you do need some new robes. Who knows how long you've been wearing that one for.." Lan mused from the kitchen of the hut.

She was right, of course- because of the horrendous beatings that it had taken over the past few days, his robe looked more like it should be horrendously burned at a bonfire, not something that he'd worn with pride for several years now. Not to mention all the holes that it probably had in it from that old goat constantly chewing on it…

"I will go, then." _Translation: But I won't necessarily like it._ Shen never would have agreed normally, so maybe this was a sign of something.

A sign that his ice-cold heart was slowly beginning to melt from Lan's kindness and compassion, a sign that he was starting to care about Lan, just as the soothsayer's prophecy had foretold…

Or it could mean nothing. Either way.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Congrats to ChocolateSyrup for correctly guessing that the "taste of your own medicine" was going to be cannons. For that, everyone gets free cookies! :)

Originally, Shen was going to fight Chao, but then I was like "oh shiz I haven't got Lan fighting yet". So, decided to use her. Man, I feel bad for Shen, having his best knife being used to make breakfast with. XD

And yes, we are _finally_ getting to the romance bits. I think, at this point, both of them have at least a VERY minor crush on each other, they just don't really realize it yet.

As a side note, I've gotten a Shen-centered fanfic up called "Cannon Fire and Orchid Petals". If you loved this story, I bet you're going to love that one, so please go and check it out, 'kay?


	12. Robes and Love

No. No, definitely not… oh, gods, he wouldn't be caught_ dead_ in that bright of a robe… why couldn't this be easy? Shen groaned to himself, his posture deflating a bit. There wasn't even a single robe here that looked even _remotely_ similar to his old one- he blamed it on his perfectionist nature, he always wanted things to be exactly the way he had pictured them…

It had been hard enough to pander to his needs when he was actually allowed to live in the city, but when he had been banished it had gotten ten times worse- and why was he even dwelling on that subject in the first place? It was hard enough knowing that his parents hated him, so why did he have to think about the proof that they had, the event that had happened almost three decades ago, the event that made him fight back tears as hard as he could-

"Oh, here's a nice shade… or maybe this one, but the first one would bring out your feathers a lot more…" Lan's voice rang out from the far corner of the stall, thankfully distracting him from his thoughts. "What do you think?"

"I don't care what shade they are." Shen growled, hoping-no, praying- that Lan couldn't hear his voice breaking slightly. He did not, under any circumstances, want a robe that brought out his feathers, his stupid, different feathers…

"For the love of the gods, Shen, would it kill you to not have a robe that looks exactly like your other one?"

"…Yes."

"Other than the fact that you have the biggest ego of anyone in China, I have no idea what Xun and Zhong see in you." Lan joked half-heartingly, a teasing glitter in her pink eyes.

"Neither do I, to be honest." Shen replied, glancing around the small market. Darn it, there were so many people here, and the crowd pressing in on them from all directions was beginning to make him feel the tiniest bit claustrophobic. Shen had to use every ounce of self-control to not flare his tail feathers out at the crowd. _I swear, if I have to spend one more minute at this filthy stall…_

"Well, I found a silver one that looks nice. Then, we should probably rustle up lunch somewhere… unless you royal types prefer eating at home these days." Lan joked, handing money to the fat pig who ran the stall as she did so.

"Err… yes, I.." Shen actually surprised himself at how pathetic his voice sounded- he usually sounded a lot more-epic, for lack of a better word, than this. Now he was tripping over his words every single time he even glanced the right way at Lan. Wasn't that one of the signs that you actually liked some-

_No. You don't love her, love is a weakness. Love gets in the way of all your plans. Remember the panda… _Shen mentally berated himself, before he realized that he really didn't care about his goal to take revenge on that so-called 'Dragon Warrior'. Okay, now something was really wrong with him. He was Lord Shen, warlord of Gongmen City, who killed anyone who dared to stand in his way- wasn't he supposed to live up to that image?

Lately, though, he had been much more focused on Lan than he should have been- and he still couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or not.

* * *

><p>After purchasing the robe from the market- which happened to fit surprisingly well- and eating at a small noodle shack on the side of the small cobblestone street- they returned to the shack, amid accusations from Xun and Zhong as to why they'd been gone for so long.<p>

"Were you… _making out_ with him?" Xun exclaimed, his tiny little eyes bugging out of his head.

"Oh, no! Xun, why would you even… no, gods, no." Lan denied fiercely, shaking her head.

"So he wasn't trying to flirt with you… you know, and making those weird cawing sounds that peacocks do?" Zhong questioned, his eyes narrowing.

"If you would all just_ listen_ to me and stop being so over-protective… we went to the market and got robes. Nothing happened, and if I hear _one_ more word about it, I swear to the gods…" Lan snarled, her eyes blazing.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll say nothing about it. Promise." Zhong said as the duo departed from the room, before launching into song. "Shen and Laannn, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S…"

The raccoon ducked just in time to avoid a throwing blade that came rushing towards his head, chuckling as he ran out.

"I swear, raccoon, when I catch up to you, you are going to EAT those words…"

Men these days. Sheesh.

* * *

><p>Lan couldn't help but feel sorry for Shen. He'd chased Zhong around the house for the good part of half an hour, with occasional coughs ringing out every now and then. Lan had confined him to bed, and now he was having what was quite possibly the worst nightmare in history, tossing and turning in his sleep. She did want to comfort him, somehow stop him from having these delusions every single time he closed his eyes.<p>

Now, let's see, what herbs were good for nightmares, if there even were any? This was her cousin, after all, and as much as she had hated him when they met for the first time in almost thirty-two years, she had to help somehow. This lack of sleep couldn't be doing any good for Shen- not that his mind could grow any more twisted than it already was, but just to be sure…

As he cried out in his sleep again, Lan came to a sudden decision. _Ah, to hell with it. _If Xun and Zhong were watching, she would never be able to live this down…

She remembered how the soothsayer had cuddled him when he was a hatchling and had this same problem- surprise, a thing she actually remembered from their few encounters- and she thought that repeating the act would be better than nothing. Yep. She actually started cuddling Shen while he was asleep.

_Oh, for the love of the gods, this is SO freaking embarrassing… _Lan thought to herself as she laid there, one wing curled around Shen's side. Well, it seemed to be working- a little, at least (his screams and moans were finally beginning to subside). However much she didn't want to, she fell asleep at his side soon enough. Shen was probably going to kill her in the morning, but still…

Morning came. Shen opened his eyes to bright sunlight- gods, why did everything have to be so damn _bright_ in this house- and he turned over to see… oh, bloody hell, what was Lan doing… the woman was practically_ straddling_ him-

Caught between emitting a caw or a scream, Shen finally emitted something between the two, a high-pitched screeching noise that sounded somewhat like 'Caaeeepp', which succeeded in waking Lan up.

"Oh, sorry, it's just… you were having the most awful nightmares, and I just thought that if I… like your Nana used to.." she stammered, wincing as he gave her the most powerful death-glare he could muster under the circumstances.

Shen didn't know what was more embarrassing- the fact that his own cousin had been sleeping in the same bed as him, or the fact that she was trying to imitate his surrogate mother from all those years ago. "So… we didn't…"

"I strongly assure you that we didn't." Lan insisted. "I was just trying to comfort you, for the gods' sake… Shen, you have got to get these fantasies out of your head."

"Well, that's… a relief." Shen shakily stated, trying to look at anything in the room but Lan.

"All the same, I think it's better if we don't tell Xun and Zhong about this- they'd never let us live this down."

"…Agreed." Okay, he didn't want her telling _anyone_ about this, much less her idiot friends. Oh gods, he had to ignore the way he thought Lan's feathers glistened in the sunlight, and the way he suddenly wanted to be closer to her- this was so embarrassing, words couldn't even begin to describe it.

Yep. He was falling in love with his own cousin, the same way she was falling for him. This was completely and utterly wrong, Shen wasn't supposed to love anybody…

So why did it feel so right?

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> The whole 'comforting in bed' scene has_ **no**_ offensive material in it whatsoever, I just want you to know... Shen's mind just assumes that whatever could happen, did happen. Eh, Shen has a messed-up mind, okay? *shot*

But hey, this fanfic's rated Teen for a reason(mostly because of all the swearing that Xun and Lan do). They'll be... err... making out in other chapters, promise.. but if you're not a fan of that stuff, **DO NOT** read the last few chapters. There's going to be kissing. A lot of kissing, to be exact. Awkward, Shen romance is awkward. XD

Yes, they are finally admiting that they love each other. They're just kind of scared to admit it. Yes, the relationship is moving a little fast, but hey, they gotta fall in love sometime, right? Oh, and I all want you to know... there is going to be a sequel to this fanfic, for reasons I'll reveal eventually. I'm sure you guys can figure it out. :)


	13. Romance and Butterflies

Okay, for the first time in thirty- count them, _thirty_ years- Shen was finally starting to warm up to somebody? _Took you long enough. _A little voice in his head inwardly scolded him, just one of the many voices in his head. Yes, it was true, the peacock warlord had way more deeply-rooted physiological problems than he wanted most people to realize. His mind was like a great big puzzle, and at the moment it was missing quite a few pieces. Of course, at the moment all he could focus on was Lan.

He loved her (albeit in a reluctant sort of way), he wasn't going to try and deny that, but Shen still couldn't decide if that was necessarily a good thing or not. If word ever got out that the infamous Lord Shen was finally starting to show a soft side- oh, gods, he would never hear the end of it. What was worse, Xun and Zhong were even starting to take bets on how soon Lan would ask him on a 'date' (Shen was quite unfamiliar with the term, but he knew that it couldn't be a good thing).

When she had finally mustered up the courage to do so- okay, so it _had_ been over breakfast, and her beak had been buried in the soup bowl so far that Shen was certain he'd heard her wrong the first time- he'd heard them victoriously whispering to each other from a corner of the room.

"I was totally right. One day."

"Man, I was going to bet on one week…" Zhong had whined, pressing his ears against his forehead.

Shen had thrown them one of his famous 'death glares' in a futile attempt to get them to shut those blathering mouths of theirs- it had only worked momentarily, and then they were back to gossiping with just as much gusto as ever.

* * *

><p>He was still dwelling on the subject a few hours later, when Lan was trying- with varying levels of success- to get him to come into the small pool she'd found by a waterfall.<p>

"Shen, you have _got_ to get over this silly fear of water." she groaned from where she was floating in the pool.

"One, I am not afraid of water, two, I am not going to get my brand-new robe wet…" Shen hissed, his tail feathers flaring up a bit.

"If you'd stop insisting on being the center of the universe at all times, it would really be a good thing." Lan clicked her tongue at Shen sympathetically. "Besides, it's not like you're going to nearly drown like last time. You would not believe how shallow it is in here."

"You're going to have to try better than that if you want to persuade me, _female_." he growled, half-heartily reverting back to the use of her gender name.

"You're right. If I can't persuade you, maybe a little bit of force will work…" Lan said, her eyes glimmering mischievously as she playfully tugged Shen into the water, where he proceeded to freeze up with shock at the fact that he was now surrounded by water.

Commence Shen freak-out in three, two…

"Oh, _gods_…" Shen cried, his voice taking on a ridiculously higher pitch from sheer panic as he did so. Now he was surrounded by water, and he couldn't even swim all that well- this situation could not possibly get any worse.

"Well, swim already!"

Correction. It just did.

Letting out a _very_ exasperated sigh, Shen turned back to Lan. "If memory serves correctly, the reason I nearly drowned in the pond was because I can't swim.."

"You can swim- how well you can do it is the question." Lan retorted, grinning, and Shen was sure that he would have murdered her right then and there if he hadn't currently been so smitten with her.

He had to stifle a yelp as something brushed against his leg, and looked up to see Lan giggling once again. "Honestly, Shen, you're freaking out just because some pondweed brushed against you?"

"How was I supposed to…" Shen retorted, before trailing off, suddenly realizing how pathetic he must look, standing here freaking out over little droplets of water.

"This reminds me of the time when your wolf friend told me that you started freaking out over seeing a firework for the first time. Now, ironically, you're obsessed with them." Lan snorted. "Some of your ideas for them were pathetic… a firework-powered chair? Seriously?"

"There were minor glitches…" Shen muttered- why where they even having this conversation in the first place?

"Someone told me that in the Valley of Peace a few years ago, a panda tried the same thing- this would be the same panda who defeated you, yes?"

Oh, she had hit a nerve there, but Shen wouldn't let her know about that- after all, what would be the point of losing his temper when he was knee-deep in water? "I can only imagine how_ that_ turned out." he replied, smirking slightly.

"Not well, to be honest. It's a wonder he didn't blow himself up along with the chair, really…" Lan mused. "How he got to be the Dragon Warrior is beyond me… hey, don't look at me like that, I do actually pay attention to what goes on around me!" she retorted in response to the strange look that Shen gave her. "Now, honestly, are we just going to sit here gossiping all night, or are you actually going to swim?"

* * *

><p>So, the duo proceeded to linger about the pool, and Shen did, finally, begin to swim a bit- though it wasn't swimming as much as floundering around in the shallows, but eventually he managed to get the hang of it… at least now he wasn't shrieking like a deranged wolf whenever pondweed brushed against his leg. He had to admit, he was enjoying himself (for the first time since he was a hatchling).<p>

The fact that his robe was now soaking-wet only momentarily ruffled him- it would probably dry out quickly enough, and… okay, now something was severely wrong. Shen had been known, in his later years, for having a temper like an active volcano- no one knew when or upon who he would unleash his wrath, so most of the wolves and the few gorillas he had managed to recruit preferred to stay as far away from Shen as possible. Wasn't he supposed to be getting riled up at things like this?

The thing was, he had suddenly remembered one of his many etiquette lessons- that you did not, under any circumstances, lose your temper around a lady (which was a lesson he seemed to have been neglecting up until quite recently). Some of his old temper did return, however, when a small butterfly floated down from the trees and perched on one of his metal talons, seeming to be enjoying itself. Unfortunately, Shen had never been very good with bugs -he either wanted to eat them or squash them into oblivion half of the time , and more often than not he chose the latter option.

Oh, how badly he wanted to impale the little thing on one of his knives- and even now, he was slowly beginning to draw one when Lan's voice rang out.

"Wait! Don't kill it!"

Shen turned his head toward her, trying his best not to let out an annoyed hiss. "You give me one _very_ good reason why I shouldn't…"

"It's just an insect. What would be the point of killing it? It didn't do anything to you, other than perch on your toe.. in my opinion, it looks quite happy where it is."

Shen froze in place, her words sinking right down to the very core of his insane, twisted mind. _It didn't do anything to you… _It had been the same way for the pandas, but why give them a chance to do something? He had only been trying to protect himself- after all, he did want to survive to rule over the city, he didn't want some stupid bear getting in his way… but that look, the expression of horror that crossed his parents' faces as they looked down at him that day- that would always haunt him.

He had known, from that moment on, that the only way to be happy was to kill anyone who dared stand in his way, to mock him, tell him that he wasn't worthy of anything that came his way… who cared if the butterfly hadn't done anything to him, it was still going down.

"But look, see how delicate it is? It would be a waste to kill it." Lan persisted, fixing Shen with a glare so fierce that he couldn't look away from it.

It wasn't his fault that the insect was too puny to properly defend itself- it was tiny and thin, it would be way too easy to kill, but too tiny to pin with a knife- maybe if he just squashed it in his talons…

"Look, Shen, just look at it." Lan sighed, she knew this was going to be a total waste of her time- after all, this was _Shen_ she was talking to, and she knew from years of experience that once he got his mind set on something, he was surprisingly stubborn toward anyone trying to change his opinion. "See how delicate and beautiful it is?"

Beautiful? Since when had he cared whether something was beautiful or not- and he fought the urge to squirm as the butterfly started worming its way further and further up his talon. Why did it pick there, of all the places it could have perched, to land? It only brought attention to the fact that he had third-degree burns hidden under those talons- darn that stupid panda, if only he hadn't pushed him into the fire…

Stupid,_ stupid _insect, inadvertently bringing back memories that he didn't even want to remember- but maybe he should just observe the insect, if only to humor Lan. So Shen stared at it for several moments, trying to ignore the fact that the insect was starting to crawl past his talons and onto his outstretched wing- oh, gods, its feet tickled…

The insect did seem awfully curious, though- it reminded him of when he was a hatchling, so innately curious about everyone and everything. It did have a nice color scheme- a nice, _normal_ color scheme, that is. Oh, what did he know, for all he knew it may not be a normal color for a butterfly, he didn't even know what the normal color for a butterfly was…

Oh, great, now the butterfly was confusing and bewildering him all at the same time. Shen just continued to observe it- the shape of its body, the thin, tiny wings… and then he realized that he really didn't want to kill it anymore. It was too tiny, too delicate, too terribly innocent to die, and he didn't even make a move to stop it as it fluttered off.

"So, wasn't it beautiful?" Lan's voice rang out once more, and Shen found himself nodding in spite of everything.

"…Yes. Yes, it was…" _Just like you, _he wanted to add, but he couldn't bring his tongue to form the words. Shen still didn't want to admit the truth to himself, and he still wasn't sure how Lan would react.

The truth was absolutely crazy, after all.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Yes, this chapter is much less awkward than the other one, I am pleased to say. Also, Shen, darn it. Y U NO REALIZE THAT U LOVE HER?

Yes, I actually wrote the 'swimming in the waterfall' to get over Shen's fear of water... hey, better late than never... and the butterfly sequence... I dunno, originally I was going to put that in "Cannon Fire and Orchid Petals", but I just thought it fit better in here.

Btw, a new chapter of that will be coming up soon- for those of you who haven't read it yet, I reccomend it- it's my idea of how Shen's life progressed, from cute little baby to, well, that genocidal adult that we all know and love. :)


	14. Memories and Forgiveness

Xun was the only one who'd noticed- probably because he was a former assassin, so it was naturally his job to be observant- but Shen seemed rather withdrawn today. He hadn't talked to anyone, not even Lan, in the household, and the two had made it painfully obvious that they now liked each other beyond a mild friendship. The cobra would be darned if he hadn't noticed, he and Zhong had been taking bets on it, for crying out loud... but that was getting slightly off subject. Point of the matter was, Shen wanted to be left alone today, and he meant it, too.

The snake had learned that the hard way when he'd tried to give Shen a little heart-to-heart chat- he usually sucked at those in the first place, but the fact that the peacock kept fingering his throwing knives all the while just put him even more on edge, reminding him that he'd have to play his cards a bit better than usual if he wanted to get Shen to open up about his troubles. He'd stammered out a few inquiries, only about half of which the bird actually bothered to reply to, and in the end Xun thought he'd made more than just a fool of himself. He'd gone and looked like a complete idiot in front of one of his many idols.

Not to mention that the knife Shen had almost causally thrown in his direction as he had left had made the fact even more painfully obvious.

* * *

><p>Now, the four were gathered on the porch of the house, though the snake did his best to keep a respectable distance from Shen- after all, when a person like the former warlord was angry, it was really better to just leave them alone. But he knew the perfect person to talk to Shen. Who better than his own cousin?<p>

"I really think you should talk to him." Xun spoke up from where he was coiled around one of the railings of the porch.

"W...What? Why me?" There was an obvious flustered note in Lan's voice, and Xun couldn't stop the smile that wormed its way onto his face. _Busted, you do like him..._

"He nearly impaled me when I tried." he stated, raising his head to look at Lan. "What, afraid he'll start flirting with you the moment you get near him?"

"Xun, I swear..." Lan's tirade was interrupted by Zhong pushing her forward. "Not you, too..."

"C'mon, just go talk to him."

"No! Guys... just because I spent one night with him doesn't mean... and what makes you think he'll listen to me?" she inquired, her feathers puffing out a bit from exasperation.

"You are his cousin." Zhong pointed out, jerking his head in Shen's direction.

"Yeah, well, we haven't exactly been on speaking terms up until quite recently." Lan muttered, ignoring the strange look Shen shot her. When she finally saw that her friends weren't going to back down, she gave a resigned sigh. "Fine, fine, I'll do it." With that, she fixed the snake and raccoon with one last glare before starting in Shen's direction.

Shen, meanwhile, had stubbornly clamped his beak shut, his eyes narrowing in disgust. He'd be darned if he was going to attempt a heart-to-heart chat for the second time that day- the first attempt had been pathetic enough, and he did not want to tell Lan about what was on his mind, because it was so terribly unlike him to dwell on his past. _Why is it that when I actually __**want **__to be left alone, no one bothers to obey the request? _

Lan had sat down next to Shen, glancing at him. "So... what are you thinking about? Don't say nothing, because I know that look on your face. Hey, I'm your cousin, I know the truth behind your actions better than anyone."

Ugh. What was it going to take for everyone to leave him alone today? Shen was sure that he would have thrown an entire cluster of throwing knives at her- not that he'd actually aim at her or anything, he could afford to be the tiniest bit generous this time around. Besides, Lan seemed to have developed a quite annoying immunity to having sharp objects thrown at her. "Nothing that you need to be concerned about."

"It is something to be concerned about if you've been avoiding everyone because of it." she retorted, her eyes narrowing to pink slits as she sized him up.

"... If you must know, I'm thinking about the palace that I _intentionally_ blew up. Happy now?" Shen hissed, trying to avoid the all-too-familiar sting of tears welling up in his vision at the thought of anything from his childhood... and why was he even thinking about it? He hadn't even cared that he'd blown up the Tower of Sacred Flame, even though it had been his home for however many years- he had been far more focused on his own selfish desires to bother caring.

"Oh, thinking about your childhood. Hmm, can see why you'd be touchy about that topic..." Lan muttered, instantly berating herself for saying something so stupid.

Shen visibly winced, his crest wilting a bit, though he regained his composure quickly enough to continue. "It was my home, for however short of a time." Oh, gods, he hoped she hadn't noticed his voice cracking on the last few words.

"Your banishment? Shen, it's been how many years since then and you're still thinking about it? You're way too wrapped up in the past for your own good."

"Thirty, and I'm going to kindly ask you to drop the subject." he hissed quietly, trying to wipe the tears out of his eyes- darn them, darn those salty water drops that, even after thirty years, he still couldn't completely hold back.

"Why are you so fixated on this all of a sudden? This isn't because of the whole 'my parents hate me' thing, is it?" Lan inquired, cocking her head sympathetically.

"If... if they truly loved me, they wouldn't have banished me." There came the gasping breaths that he always took when trying to hold back his emotions, and his eyes were even starting to glaze over from memories and repressed pain.

"They did what was best. You know that, Shen." she muttered, trying to put a comforting wing on his shoulder, yet he flinched away when he realized what Lan was trying to do.

"What would have best would be to let me dispose of the thing that was standing in my way!" Shen would have screaming now if his throat hadn't tied itself into knots. "They _disowned_ me... their own son..."

"They were just trying to protect you, Shen..." Lan wilted a bit under the hate-filled glare that Shen threw her.

"Protect me from what? The fact that I'm weak, sickly, a freak of nature? The fact that nothing I do ever goes right? The fact that, perhaps, I never should have been born?" Shen let out a venomous hiss at that. "I don't _need_ protection!"

Lan gaped at her cousin a bit- how could he put himself down like this, and not even realize it? She knew that Shen had never been very self-confident, especially when he was a hatchling, but this... did he really think so lowly of himself, or was he just that quick to believe the opinions of others? _Then again, he's had a harder life than most. _"You're not the only white peacock around, you know. Everyone that I knew was perfectly fine with my color..."

"Peacocks aren't supposed to be _white_!" Shen hissed, fighting the urge to flare out his tail feathers. "Every other animal is allowed to be a different color, but the moment I was born, what did everybody do? Dismissed me as a bad omen, ignored me, shunned me... and you can honestly say that it's perfectly fine to be white?"

"I preferred to think of myself as a diamond in the rough, of sorts. Every other peahen was brown- well, except for a few, but brown is such a drab color." Lan muttered. "It was unique."

"Every peahen that saw me would just look down on me, because I wasn't blue and green like the others..." Shen murmured, barely even looking up at Lan. He felt sure that his cousin wouldn't abandon him, but how could he know for sure, when everybody had in the past?

"If they'd just looked beyond your color..." Now it was Lan's voice that was breaking. Those other peahens- simple-minded freaks, couldn't they look past someone's coloration and judge them on their personality instead?

"No one ever bothered."

"They really should have." Lan snapped, hate boiling up inside her before she could stop it. "All you wanted was to be appreciated, right?"

"I wanted to be _loved_. If I'd just been born normal..."

"Don't talk like that, Shen..." Lan muttered, using all of her self-control to not reach over and smooth down his feathers like she'd seen the soothsayer do so many times to comfort him. "You went about trying to get it in the wrong way, though..."

"I thought that if I actually did something for myself for once, they might have paid attention to me." That wasn't half of the reason why he'd actually attacked the panda village without any sort of permission or sign of rebellion, however...

Lan glanced over at Xun and Zhong- who had been quietly eavesdropping on the entire conversation- then turned back to Shen. "Look, for privacy's sake, let's continue this conversation indoors, away from _prying eyes_..." she shot over at her two friends, who immediately realized that they'd been caught in the act, and proceeded to retreat back into the house. "...Never mind. You were saying?"

"I... I listened in on the fortune-telling, and I must admit, I was... frightened." Shen sheepishly admitted, glancing down at the floor. "I just wanted to show people that all the rumors about me not living long were not going to be true... not if I could help it." Oh gods, now he was actually spilling the beans about the entire reason why he'd attacked the village to his own cousin... why was he so easily manipulated by her these days?

"I remember, you wanted to be just like your father when you were little." Lan mused.

"I thought that all I did was good, and then they banished me... from the city that I was rightfully supposed to rule!" Shen snarled, and now the tears were coming on stronger than ever, he was fighting harder than he'd ever had to hold them back.

"They did what was right, Shen. If they'd let you stay after you killed off an entire village- no offense, but it wouldn't have been the right thing to do. They always loved you, Shen."

"No... no, they never... never loved me..." he gasped out, every single one of his feathers completely flat with grief and anger.

"Don't you remember when you fell in the pond, your mother was worried sick about you!" Lan retorted. "She was so afraid that you were going to drown in there that she actually helped pull you out!"

"That is just one coincidence." Shen stated, thinking to himself that the only reason she'd rescued him had been to raise his hopes for the future, only to bring them crashing down on top of him.

"Your father let you play by his _throne_, for the love of the gods!" Yes, the throne that he'd just so happened to throw out a window, and who knew where it was, or if it had been crushed beyond repair when the tower fell...

"...Yes, but..." The peacock was interrupted by Lan half-heatedly glaring at him.

"Look, Shen, I know that there's a part of the old you, deep down inside, that knows how much your parents loved you." she muttered, glancing sympathetically up at him. "I am not going to rest until I find that part." With that, she whirled around and stalked into the house, Shen dejectedly trailing behind her.

Forgive his parents for banishing him, for casting him out of the city that he was supposed to rule? No, he couldn't, his stubbornness and pride wouldn't let him. Then again, perhaps this was part of the 'compassion and learning to care for others' that the soothsayer had mentioned in her fortune-telling... and who was to say that it didn't apply to his parents as well as Lan?

* * *

><p>So, that night, he thought about all the things he could remember about his parents, trying to look for at least one thing that would prove him right, that they had never loved him, that the affection they'd given him for all those years was nothing but a huge mask to hide their true feelings behind. Yet as he looked through the memories, he could only see love and affection in their eyes. They hadn't been around much to take care of Shen, but the lord and lady hadn't cared that their son was a different color than anyone else. He could see that now- they didn't care that he was weak or sickly, and the reason that they worried so much when he fell into bouts of sickness was that they <em>did<em> care about his well-being, they wanted him to survive so they could prove how much they _did _love him.

They'd been so worried when he'd started using the fireworks for dark purposes only because they knew that Shen could do better than that, they knew that he could create fireworks for useful purposes if he'd just tried. At first, it had only been about protecting people, but his mind had grown more and more twisted as the years went by, and they started turning into something darker. His parents had been so heart-broken when they'd banished him- it had been the right thing to do, and he'd thought otherwise. Shen hadn't seen the repressed pain behind his parent's eyes when they read the conditions of his banishment out, he'd been more focused on screaming every last insult he could back at the palace walls.

They had loved him, and he'd taken it for granted. All these years of believing that his parents hated him had closed his eyes to the real thing. He'd thrown their love out the window (both metaphorically and in reality), he'd disgraced their memories. The soothsayer had even told him to stop his conquest of China, so the lord and lady could rest in peace- some subconscious part of him had tried to listen to her words of wisdom, but his pride and repressed pain wouldn't let him- and he hadn't listened to her. He hadn't even listened to his own surrogate mother. He'd disgraced his family, he really hadn't deserved to lead the city. He'd been a horrible son, and no one would have followed him when he was a proper lord.

He'd killed his own parents- maybe not by wounding them physically, but emotionally. Shen didn't think he'd ever felt this guilty about anything... they'd loved him all along, and it had taken him thirty years of suffering, of anger and torturing others, to realize. He hadn't needed to make others feel his pain, it was terribly unfair to them. He forgave everyone in that moment, everyone who'd ever talked down to him, because it wasn't their fault. The only person to blame was himself.

Shen suddenly remembered what the panda had said to him, when he'd testily told him that he 'didn't care what scars did'.

"_You should, Shen. You gotta let go of that stuff from the past, 'cause it just doesn't matter..." _

He'd wondered how the so-called 'Dragon Warrior' had found out about his past- about _Shen's_ past, for that matter. But now he saw the truth behind those words, the words that he'd found so completely brainless and overly philosophical at the time...

"_The only thing that matters... is what you choose to be now." _

He didn't want to be an insane warlord anymore, that was for sure. But what did he want to be? Lan had said that there was a hint of his 'old self' buried somewhere inside of him- but how could he even begin to find it?

_Maybe you need to forgive yourself first._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Ugh, sappy chapter is sappy. But hey, he's gotta forgive his parents at some point, right? I think this is another one of those scenes that I was going to put in "Cannon Fire and Orchid Petals", but then I thought, "Aw, to heck with putting it in that story, I'm gonna put it in here." So I did. Yay, beginning part of the chapter in Xun's point of view, which I've been meaning to do for forever in one of the chapters! And yes, I am considering Po's quotes as a cameo of sorts in this chapter.

I'm sorry to say that this story is slowly but surely coming to its conclusion- I only have three or four more chapters in mind before I close it up. But don't worry- like I said, there will be a sequel to this fanfic, in which you will meet someone from Shen's past (no, not Wolf Boss, there'll be plenty of him in CFAOP)... and yes, there just might be baby peacocks. :) And you'll always have my other Shen-centered fanfic to read after this.

But, my fellow writers, if you leave enough kind reviews *hinthint*, you just might get a chance to name one of the babies. Now wouldn't that be exciting?


	15. Crying and Compassion

Forgive himself? No, he couldn't, he _wouldn't._ If it wasn't for him, then countless people in Gongmen, the pandas, and his parents wouldn't have had to go through what they did. Never mind the few good things that he had done in the past, the bad things far outweighed them- he'd murdered an entire village, disgraced his family's name, killed his best friend (or at least, he only assumed that he'd done that, there was no proof that the knife blows had actually been fatal), destroyed his own palace, fired a cannon on a bridge full of innocents all because they were in the way of his ships... he may have thought what he was doing was justified, but in the end, Shen had his eyes opened. He finally saw what he truly was.

A heartless killer, a monster, an insane warlord who deserved every single form of torture imaginable. _Not to mention that you're a spineless coward, and a weak, insolent fool. _Shen groaned to himself, remembering that night in the palace when he'd met the panda and his lackeys for the first time- or so he'd thought. As the seemingly hulking form had advanced up the staircase, the peacock had dropped his confident, arrogant, and cocky facade- he'd actually been afraid for the tiniest of seconds, he'd had cold-hard fear lancing through him. Of course, all that had gone away when he'd seen what a seemingly defenseless fool the so-called 'Dragon Warrior' was.

Fast-forward to the final confrontation on the ships, when he'd kept ordering his troops to fire at the fat bear, even though he knew that it would all be completely pointless in the end. He just hadn't been able to face the fact that, for once in his life, he was _losing_- losing to a fat bear who should have been finished off back in the fireworks factory. But then again, Shen had found out a long time ago that fate liked to screw with you at times. It never did what it was supposed to. Was he really stooping that low, however, that he hadn't had the guts to admit that he'd failed?

His parents...his own _parents_ had died because of him. He'd killed them with the grief of having to banish him- not that they hadn't already been getting on in years, but still. How could he have just taken their love for granted, tossed it out the window like some ancient rubbish that no one bothered to value anymore? He didn't deserve love or friendship, Xun and Zhong's admiration, Lan's minor crush on him... because he was an arrogant fool, a monster, and the list went on and on.

Shen felt the normal tears stinging his vision- no, he had to hold them back, he couldn't let the water droplets escape, it would only show weakness. Then again, everything about him was weak, what difference was one more example going to make? He was an albino freak, his color was different, a bad omen- he didn't know how anybody could see otherwise. Shen had the immune system of a week-old chick, he fell to sickness much too rapidly for his own good, and no one wanted to waste their time on him. How badly he wanted to stab himself sometimes, especially now, because maybe that would get rid of all the emotions swarming through his head, all of the problems in his life.

_But it wouldn't. You know that, Shen. _

Oh, great, he was talking to himself again. Just bloody _perfect_. Why couldn't everything around him just shut up and let him be for once? It made him want to claw at his own head so damn badly, because now it only reminded him of how fragmented his mind was. That thought only led him to his metal feet, which led him to the panda village, which only made him feel even more like crap than he already was. _The gods take great pleasure out of messing with my head, don't they? _

The tears streamed down his face before he could stop them, a few muffled, sobbed curses escaping his beak as he realized what he was doing. Well, it was too late to hold back his tears now, so he might as well just roll with it. Shen collapsed into the bed, too tired to bother getting up, choking out muffled apologies to everyone and yet no one at the same time as the tears continued to stream down his cheeks, hitting the wooden floor with soft thumps. For once, he didn't try to stop the salty drops, he just let them flow of their own free will. "I'm so sorry..." he croaked, gazing up at the stars from his position by the window, before he realized that there was no one around to listen to him, and that fact made him sob harder than ever before.

* * *

><p>Lan failed at heart-to-heart chats. She could see that now, what with the results of the one she'd attempted to have with Shen a few hours ago. Or maybe it was just her cousin's insufferable stubbornness that did it. For whatever reason, she was having mixed feelings about their conversation. She knew better than anyone else that Shen had a side to him besides the murderous warlord that everybody else saw- he still hadn't matured inwardly, inside he was still just a poor, lost hatchling trying to find his place in the world, and evidently failing. Lan knew that Shen wasn't really 'evil'- it was just a way for him to hide his pain and anger, all the suffering that he'd had to endure over the years. Why, for the love of the gods, did he honestly think that his parents hated him? She knew otherwise, there were so many examples of his parent's love if he would just look hard enough in the vaults of his memories.<p>

She didn't think his color was bad, like the peacock seemed to think. Who cared what other people thought of it, white was pure and beautiful- somehow peaceful at times. White was the color of snow, of clouds, and no one went around saying that _those_ were bad omens, as much as some people seemed to utterly despise winter weather. Why did they think white was a bad color- Lan herself was white, for crying out loud! Lan didn't care what it took, she would make Shen see himself in a different way if it killed her (which it probably would, considering the number of knives he'd thrown at her already).

She stalked up to the door of Shen's temporary bedroom, about to give him a peace of her mind as she threw the door open- and she could only gape in astonishment down at the bed. The infamous Lord Shen, the one who had a heart colder than the biggest icicle, was _crying. _No, wait, correction- he was openly _sobbing. _The only reason Lan was actually surprised about this was because she hadn't seen Shen cry since he was about ten or eleven, he'd decided a long time ago that tears brought nothing but weakness. Yet here he was, not even having the heart to raise his head and glare at her as the saltwater streamed down his cheeks.

"Shen..." she breathed, a million different thoughts running through her head all at once. Just how long had he been like this, without anyone knowing- especially for Xun and Zhong, who were quite possibly the biggest gossips she had ever met? Crossing over to his bedside, she didn't even flinch when he let out a slight hiss through his tears, feathers flaring up ever so slightly.

"S...Stay away from me, Lan..."

"You of all people should know that I could never do that." Lan whispered, her eyes brimming with sympathy. "Since when have I started listening to anything you have to say, either?" She surprised herself at the way Shen just seemed to mildly accept this- no bristling feathers, no screaming at her in rage, no unsheathed knives ready to whip themselves at her forehead...

"Just...just go away..." he half-heartedly grumbled, sniffling a bit, and Lan was sure she would have chuckled at how utterly pathetic he looked if the situation hadn't been this serious.

"Why would I?" she muttered, sitting on the bed's thin side as she did so.

"I'm a monster..." he choked out, finally seeming to gain temporary control over his tears. "Monsters don't deserve anyone's sympathy. So... so stay away."

"You're not a monster, Shen." With that, she'd crawled into the bed with him, cradling his head in her lap, despite the fact that he was two years older than her, despite the fact that he could quite easily turn around and murder her right then and there if he wanted to, running a wing along his feathers as he continued to sob to himself.

For once, he didn't mind the close contact- it only made him feel better, made him feel like someone actually cared about him for once. Shen did have the feeling that the tears were actually helping him, because for the first time in years he wasn't trying to vainly repress them- but maybe that was because Lan sent him a glare so fierce when he tried to blink them back into his eyes that he had no choice but to comply. The peacock also wasn't having the urge to brutally impale Lan, like he would any other time that she got this close to him- though, he was her cousin, so going around impaling his own family member would generally be frowned upon. (Shen later wondered to himself why he hadn't realized that sooner.)

He was taken back to all his memories with the soothsayer, when she'd cuddle him and tell him everything was going to be all right whenever he cried, and he inwardly cursed himself for not having listened to her sooner. Shen was suddenly taken back to the night at the factory, when she'd scolded him for blowing up his own home.

"_The cup you choose to fill has no bottom. It is time to stop this madness." she'd intoned, trying to spit philosophy this and wisdom that at him as usual._

"_Why on earth would I do that?" he'd scoffed, looking down at her contemptuously._

"_So your parents can rest in peace." The inevitable shadow had crossed over his face, his tone darkening as his voice started to annoyingly break mid-sentence._

"_My parents... hated me. Do you understand? They wronged me, and... I will make it right." _

_No. They never hated me. _Shen thought, continuing to choke out apologies to non-existent beings as he did so. It was his own fault that he'd been too narrow-minded to notice. It was nobody's fault but his. In that moment, all of the pain, all of the anger towards others that he'd felt, all the bottled up emotions of the last thirty years were released. Oh, gods, it felt _good- _not at all what he'd been expecting, but still. He'd just continue to lay there for as long as possible now, he wasn't even going to try and move away from Lan. He _needed_ her there, needed some form of comfort to be there beside him.

Heck, even Zhong, or dare I say the panda would have been fine right about now- though with the panda, Shen probably wouldn't have given in to the comforting hugs quite as easily. The peacock heard telltale slithering noises coming from somewhere to his right, having to suppress a sigh through his sobs. Oh, great, so now the snake and the raccoon were coming to join the party? _Let's lump all the members of the household together and see what happens, shall we? _

"Aww, you poor thing..." Zhong half-snickered, and Shen was sure that he would have turned the raccoon into his own personal pincushion right then and there if he hadn't been experiencing one heck of an emotional turmoil at the moment.

"Zhong, would it kill you to not be a total ass for more than five minutes at a time?" Xun's voice rang out, sounding more than a little ticked off at his best friend.

"...Probably."

A heavy sigh escaped from Xun's mouth as the duo took their respective positions by Shen's side- Zhong cuddled up near Shen's feet, and was about to wrap his fluffy tail around the metal appendages before Shen's barely audible snarl of 'don't even think about, raccoon' stopped him dead in his tracks. Xun chose to wind himself around Shen's outstretched wing, clearly appreciating the warmth that Shen's body was currently giving off at the moment.

As much as Shen wanted to wildly flail about to knock the duo off of him, he knew that the action would be highly unnecessary, so his only response was to give a resigned sigh, slumping back down in the bed. Finally, his tears began to subside, and he reluctantly fell asleep with the trio curled around him- or, as much as he could fall asleep, what with Zhong snoring thunderously every five minutes, and Xun muttering something in his sleep that sounded suspiciously like death threats.

No other form of comfort would be needed that night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> YAY FOR EMO SHEN! *shot* Heh, another sappy chapter, and Shen experiences a slight breakdown in this one. Don't worry, the story will be become less 'woe-is-me' in the next chapter, promise. But seriously, Shen really should have listened to the soothsayer about changing while he still could. SHEN, LISTEN TO NANA FOO. And am I the only one who thought Shen was totally emo in the movie?

Eh, he has to forgive himself sometime, right? I kind of dedicate this chapter to Cryssy-miu, who, it turns out, is a huge fan of Vengeful Love, and I LOVE her story Redeeming Light. We've been having quite interesting conversations about Shen over the message system... XD

And now, I realize that this story is not going to end in three or four chapters. Eh, more for you guys to read, right?


	16. Rings and Sickness

Shen woke up the next morning to blinding sunlight (as usual), trying his best to keep himself from being temporarily blinded as he ducked his head out of range of the sunbeams, inwardly cursing his decision to lie so close to the window of the room. For a split second, he was terrified at feeling bodies pressed so close to him, his brain overreacting before he could stop it. _Bandits? Thugs? Or perhaps those wolves coming back for a second chance at revenge? _He was interrupted by two voices ringing out that sounded eagerly excited.

"Sheeennn! You're awake!" The owners of the two voices proceeded to leap on top of Shen, inadvertently smothering him as they did so.

"Gah! Just because I let you two lay in the same bed as me, it does _not _mean that I'm going to subject myself to unnecessary cuddling!" Shen hissed down at them, inwardly resisting the urge to spear both of them on his lance. He'd seen the error of his ways, and one of those errors was over-using sharp objects on people. What had Thundering Rhino said- 'never use your knives against an opponent for anything other than a last resort'?

Pff, yeah, he'd been obeying that lesson _so_ well lately. Now he was getting wrapped up in his thoughts again, the one thing that he wanted to avoid- then again, Shen had more mental issues than most, and he didn't know how long it would take to completely get rid of those. He was snapped out of his thoughts by Lan entering the room.

"Oh, good, you're awake. You know, you guys are surprisingly heavy sleepers…" Lan sighed. "Now that you guys are up, you can help out in the garden. Some of the vegetables need harvested." Before Shen could speak up, she cut across his train of thought. "Yes, that includes you, Shen."

Shen had to fight with all of his might to not unleash a string of muffled curse words at this announcement. He was a _prince_, a warlord. He was supposed to be ordering others around, not picking vegetables from some filthy garden! _This is what you get for realizing the error of your ways. Behave yourself. _A voice that sounded suspiciously like the soothsayer's rang out in his head, and the peacock knew from many long years of experience that you should really listen to any voice that sounded even remotely similar to your foster mother's.

Letting a heavy sigh escape his beak, Shen followed the trio out into the garden. He was beginning to have his doubts about this 'reforming' business, quite truthfully.

* * *

><p>"What do you think this is?" Zhong held up a rather measly-looking vegetable for Shen to look at.<p>

Shen craned his long neck to peer down at it. "My guess would be a radish."

"Nah, to me it looked more like bok choy." Xun said, slithering over and inspecting it. "Though, if you tilt your head this way, it kinda looks like a turnip…"

Lan let out a heavy sigh. "Guys, it's a sick radish. Seriously…."

"You know we're not good with vegetable types! Besides, we have so many that were imported that I can't tell the difference." Zhong muttered, glaring down at the vegetable.

"The thing is, that one's diseased. Throw it out somewhere. I'm sure the bugs will appreciate the free snack." Lan muttered, before turning back to whatever plant she had been working on beforehand.

Zhong turned to do so, and Shen could have sworn that he saw a glimmer of silver on his tail at that moment. Normally, the former warlord really wasn't one to pry about such things, but this time he found he couldn't resist. "What is that on your… tail…" he asked, pointing to the object in question.

"Hmm? Oh, this?" Zhong said, lifting the object off of his tail. "It's a tail ring… or something. An old friend gave it to me." He held it up so Shen could get a closer look at it. The peacock had to admit, the piece of jewelry was quite beautiful- silver with interlacing patterns of golden vines carved into its surface.

"Superb craftsmanship…" Shen muttered, glancing at Zhong. "You two must have been close."

"Eh, as friends, yeah. She was a mongoose or something, I can't remember what her name was… but she said she was from someplace in Africa…" Zhong murmured. "I don't really wear it all that often, but… I find it special. Since she made it herself and all. Her parents made jewelry for a living."

Shen noticed how Zhong's voice seemed to trail off at the end of his sentence, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Something happened to her, then?"

"She went off to join some army or something and… they were fighting an enemy army, she couldn't move out of the way fast enough…" The raccoon said sadly, fingering the tail ring in between his paws. "She got hit with a spear or something, and she did live, but… it got really badly infected…"

Shen let out a small murmur of sympathy, not wanting to speak up about the matter- it only reminded him of what he'd done to Hua. The wolf had been his second-in-command, his best friend, the only person who had really understood him besides the soothsayer- and he'd killed him. Or, at least, mortally wounded him. He'd been so focused on trying to stop the band of kung fu warriors from defeating him that he hadn't noticed if he'd actually hit the wolf's vitals or not.

Point of the matter was, he was no stranger to losing best friends- it had happened to Ling, to Hua, and he only prayed that it wouldn't happen to Xun and Zhong. Whether he liked it or not, he was slowly but surely starting to warm up to the duo. He couldn't tell if they felt the same way about him or not- after all, he still wasn't sure that he really deserved their sympathy…

A drop of water hitting him square on the forehead interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up to see huge rainclouds looming over the house. Oh, great, just what they needed, a sudden rainstorm to pop up. Shen had always hated rainstorms with a passion- maybe it was because they always formed mud afterwards, which he had an annoying habit of always walking into, or because he almost always got sick if he stayed out in one for too long. For whatever reason, he knew better than anyone else that they did not want to stay outdoors for much longer.

"Guys, c'mon! Gather what you can and let's get inside!" Lan called, and the rest of them were only too happy to oblige. They had made it about halfway to the house, however, when they ran into some difficulties.

Zhong had stopped dead in his tracks, grasping at his tail before whirling in a panicked circle. "My tail ring! Where is it… oh, gods, if I dropped it…"

"Zhong, we'll look for it after the rain lets up, I promise. Now come _on!" _Lan shouted, trying to get her friend to see the error of his ways. Shen agreed with her, up to a point- while it wasn't exactly wise to be running around in the middle of pouring down rain, the object in question did mean a lot to him…

Indeed, it seemed that the raccoon wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. "That thing's special to me, Lan! I'm goin' back to look for it, whether you like it or not!" With that, he'd turned around and run back in the direction they'd come.

"Zhong! Oh, you idiot…" Lan groaned, slapping a wing over her face in annoyance.

"I'll go with him." Shen volunteered, even though inwardly he was groaning at his stupidity. _Idiot! You know what will happen if you stay out too long…_

Lan echoed his thoughts by narrowing her eyes at him. "Shen, you know what happens when you stay out in the rain…"

"I'll take my chances." he hissed out, spinning on his heel and stalking after the raccoon. _If I get mortally sick because of this, so help me… _

Zhong, as it turned out, was more than willing to accept help, and so the two of them commenced trying to find the lost piece of jewelry. "Maybe it was over here… or, no, I was standing right here…" the raccoon muttered, pawing at the dirt absent-mindedly as he continued his frantic search.

As the minutes dragged on, however, Shen rapidly began to lose his patience. How freaking hard could it be to find a_ silver _tail ring in the brown mud? He knew this was a rather risky move on his part, but he had to keep going, had to help Zhong find the one thing that was most important to him…

Shen's eyes widened in horror as he realized he'd let out a shaky cough. Then another, and another. _Oh, gods, no…. no no no… _His immune system just enjoyed torturing him, didn't it? Of all the times for it to act up on him… _You brought this on yourself, you know. _Another voice in his head chimed, and the former warlord had to admit that this particular little voice was right. But what if they never found the tail ring? Zhong would be heartbroken… and since when had he actually started caring about the raccoon, anyway?

Great. Just bloody _great_. Now he was actually starting to feel the tiniest bit woozy. Cursing himself for not having listened to Lan's warning, Shen let a muffled hiss escape his beak- that was the only sound he was daring to let out, for fear that he'd lapse into a coughing fit if he spoke. Maybe if he started moving around a bit, that would give the sickness a chance to wear off… he took a step forward, only to start staggering all over the place. Well, guess that had been wishful thinking on his part, since apparently he was feeling a lot more woozy than he'd originally thought.

The sickness was only getting worse with every moment that passed, and Shen was trying his best to connect two with two, trying to guess what disease he'd just come down with according to the symptoms. It could be a mild case of pneumonia, or a blown out of proportion cold… but he found he couldn't even think properly, his thoughts were becoming hopelessly jumbled together, and his vision was even starting to blur in and out of focus.

Okay, okay, no need to panic. He just had to make it back to the house in one piece, then Lan would probably be more than willing to fix him up. Shen put one foot forward- oh, who was he kidding, this was hopeless- when he heard Zhong's voice ringing out from behind him.

"Whew, found it… hey, uh, are you okay?"

"I'm…fine…." Shen rasped out, and his body chose that moment to grip him in an incredibly violent coughing fit, the ones where his whole body would start convulsively shaking. Oh, how he wished that the soothsayer was here…

"You don't look fine. Matter of fact, you don't sound so good either." Zhong pronounced, pinning his ears back against his head, while the rest of the fur on his body was sticking out like a scared cat's from the rain. Shen would have burst out laughing if he'd been thinking clearly.

Instead, his immune system decided that it could no longer hold up to the number of ailments that were assaulting it at the moment. Shen collapsed right then and there, his body making a dull thud in the mud, and the last thing he heard before his mind faded into blackness was Zhong crying out in alarm.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Wow, two updates in one day. Must be a world record or something. Well, I did kind of want to get this chapter up as soon as possible- I really don't like to keep my fellow readers waiting, after all. *shot*

Nothing really to say, except that this is probably the most serious chapter to something that I've ever written. The story is going to take a bit of a darker turn for the next chapter or so, what with Shen getting sick and all. (In my opinion, he has a heavily blown-out-of-proportion case of pneumonia, but feel free to just dismiss it as some random disease that he's caught thanks to his crappy immune system.)

Am I totally sadistic for thinking that Shen's kind of fun to write when he's sick/injured? Uh... you can all feel free to hit me over the head with some sort of kitchen utensil now.


	17. Regrets and Worries

Oh, great. Just great. Zhong didn't think he'd ever felt more panicked in his entire life- here Shen was, collapsed on the ground for no apparent reason, and he didn't even know what to do. "Oh, man, this is not good, this is not good at all…" the raccoon groaned to himself. _This is hopeless. Absolutely freakin' hopeless. _There was a slight pause, then he mentally berated himself.

_Wow, Zhong. You do realize that you just used the word 'hopeless' twice in one sentence, right? You're so pathetic at times. Don't just stand there like a statue or something, help the dude! _The little voice that just so happened to pop up was right- he had to help Shen, whether the peacock actually wanted that help or not. All right, no need to panic. Now, he had to think logically here for a second- were there any plants in the garden he could use? Pff, fat chance, they were mostly all vegetables anyway. Zhong highly doubted that anything here would actually be useful for medical purposes.

"Okay, okay, we'll get you to Lan. Don't worry, Shen, you're gonna be fine… at least, I hope so…" Zhong muttered- as if the former warlord could honestly hear, or understand, a single word he was saying. Man, this was going to be even harder than he thought. He certainly couldn't lift Shen all the way back to the house- he didn't even know how much a peacock was supposed to weigh, for crying out loud. What if he accidentally hurt himself just trying to help one of his friends?

Okay, so Zhong really wasn't the best strategic planner on the face of the earth. But he quickly came to a decision as to just how he was going to get Shen all the way up to the cottage- one that the peacock would surely hate him for later, but still. "Okay, buddy, this might sting a bit… trust me, you'll be thanking me for this later." With that, Zhong wrapped his jaws around Shen's neck, careful to not let his teeth pierce through the feathers and flesh. The last thing Shen needed right now was yet another injury. He just had to pray that this would work, or else both of them were done for.

The raccoon began to walk backwards, still holding on to Shen's neck by some miracle (praise the gods for that) as both of them slowly started to move in the general direction of the cottage. "Oh, man, I'm so awesome." Zhong muttered around a mouthful of feathers. "Take that, Xun! I can_ so_ fend for myself…"

They only made it a few more paces before Xun and Lan came rushing up, obviously to see what was taking the duo so long. "Dude, what the… what the hell happened?" Xun cried as he came slithering up.

"Search me. He just collapsed for no apparent reason…" Zhong said, only to glad to be able to let go of Shen's neck, as the peacock's feathers were starting to get stuck in his teeth.

"Ugh, I warned him that this would happen! Why didn't he listen to me…" Lan's voice sounded strangely desperate, and Zhong had to ponder the reason behind this for several minutes afterwards. "We have to get him back to the house, come on!"

The trio worked together to lift Shen up, silently toting him back in the direction of the house. They only hoped that they would make it in time, before his condition grew worse…

* * *

><p><em>It was dark. The kind of dark that surrounds someone, choking the breath out of them. Shen didn't know where he was, didn't even know if he was fully conscious or not- probably not, seeing as there was no one around in this particular dream of his. He was utterly alone, he realized, and while that fact normally would have been just fine with him, now he was utterly terrified. He didn't want to be alone- yet, in a way, he probably deserved it. But still, where was everybody?<em>

_A voice rang out through the blackness, harsh and mocking. A voice that sounded suspiciously like his own__**. They probably left you because they didn't want to affiliate themselves with a monster. **_

_Shen lowered his gaze- or at least, he presumed that he'd lowered it, seeing as he couldn't even see a foot in front of him at the moment. For once, he didn't have an answer to give to that particular remark. Maybe because part of it was the literal truth… or maybe because he didn't want to believe it. _

_**No matter how much you try to prove otherwise, you will always have darkness in you. You will always be a hideous failure, a bad omen. Your name will forever be infamous… and even if people are willing to forgive you, they'll never forget. **_

_Part of Shen wanted to throw every single knife in his arsenal at whatever or whoever the voice belonged to, wanted to scream at it to leave him alone, go away, leave him in his misery- yet his voice seemed to be locked in his throat. _

_**You really should have listened to the panda while you still could. **_

_Oh gods, be quiet…._

_**Maybe then, you would have had a chance. But it's far too late now, isn't it? **_

_The blackness seemed to shift then, give way to a very familiar scene- he was on the boat again, the panda was trying to reason with him, and his stubborn, insane, and incredibly twisted mind wouldn't allow him to agree. Even though he was still astonished that the panda had defeated him, he was letting anger consume him at that moment. Shen watched himself whip out his knives, a flying mass of white and red as he relentlessly attacked the panda, not even noticing that he was cutting the ropes on the cannon…_

"_No, you fool, listen to him!" he screamed out, even though at the same time, he was mentally berating himself- like there was anyone here to listen to him in this dream. There was nobody around, nobody that would bother to care about his opinion. He'd never felt so alone in his entire life- even when he'd been banished, he'd still had the wolves on his side, but still._

_Suddenly, he was under the cannon again, and it was falling on him, crushing him, breaking him with its colossal weight…_

Shen chose that moment to bolt awake, panting heavily, his eyes widened as his head swiveled about wildly, trying to look for a threat or some other such threatening presence in his surroundings. He inwardly groaned as he let out a few shaky coughs, shaking his head in exasperation. So, he was still sick. Oh joy. That just proved that the entire dream had been one of his feverish delusions again, there was no threat of being left alone here- was there?

"Shen, _breathe_ already, will you?" Lan's voice rang out from the corner of the room as she stepped forward. "How are you feeling?"

Well,_ that _would certainly be a _terribly_ hard question to answer. He was still feeling terribly sick, disoriented, and terrified all at the same time… and was it just him, or did his neck sting slightly? Shen knew he had to formulate an answer, but one just wasn't coming to him. "…Awful." Hey, it was awfully deadpan, but it would work for now. Shen didn't dare to speak anymore after that, knowing that he would start coughing uncontrollably if he did.

"Not surprised, considering you collapsed in the middle of the garden. Zhong had to drag you by the neck up to where we could get you inside."

So that was why he couldn't remember anything from the past hour or so- wait. The raccoon, who had annoyed him to no end, who had every reason to hate him… may have just saved his life? As much as a tiny part of him wanted to beat Zhong's fluffy behind into oblivion for daring to bite into his neck, part of him was grateful- a very small part, but still. "But… why? I probably…. don't deserve it…" he managed to get out through his infuriating, hacking coughs.

"You really shouldn't have stayed out in the rain in the first place. I _told _you that it would be a bad idea, and you went out anyway, why… why are you so infuriatingly stubborn?"

He wished he knew himself. He'd actually wanted to help Zhong badly enough that he hadn't paid attention as to how long he'd be out in the rain, searching for that stupid, worthless tail ring of his. A few weeks ago, he would have scoffed at the very idea of actually helping someone. Now, he wasn't so sure. Maybe he was changing, just like the soothsayer had predicted…

Or maybe his feverish mind wasn't letting him think clearly at the moment. Either way.

The next thing he knew, Lan was fussing over him like a mother hen again, trying to get him to take bitter-tasting medicine that would, apparently, cure his slight cold. Shen didn't even try to resist her care- though whether that was because he was too weak to do so or because he knew better had yet to be determined. He still wasn't sure about Lan trying to help him, as he was still firmly set in the thought that he probably didn't deserve it… of course he'd put up with it for the time being, but that didn't mean that Shen didn't have his objections about it.

He was a monster, wasn't he? Monsters didn't deserve anyone's love or care, especially not from the person that he'd tried to horrendously impale so many times- so many that he'd actually lost count. Maybe this monster just wasn't as initially horrifying as he'd thought he was, and the trio who was fawning over him had seen right through his pathetic little disguise. They'd actually gotten used to him… and Shen wasn't sure to be infuriated, confused, or just accepting of the matter.

He'd even been so bold as to question Lan about the subject, and her only response was to look at him with her head cocked slightly and remark, "You're a family member, aren't you?"

"Well… yes, but…"

"Family doesn't leave family to die. Simple as that." Lan had offered in reply, before casually forcing his beak open and stuffing the medicine down his throat. A very small part of him wanted to protest at that remark- perhaps a witty comment of _'If they don't leave you to die, than why did said family banish me?'_- before he realized that he knew better than that. Quite frankly, the protest sounded rather childish, and that was the last thing Shen wanted to sound like, seeing as he absolutely loathed children, or at least used to, as they were far too annoying and carefree for his likes.

Part of it was also because, before he'd realized otherwise, he'd hated them for having families that actually cared about them, didn't think that they were disappointing freaks of nature whose colors weren't even_ normal_. The parents of those children would love them no matter what, no matter their color or health or just how long their lifespan was supposed to be. Quite frankly, the thought had made him sick and utterly, madly jealous at the same time. Why couldn't he have had that privilege, to be normal, to have even a shred of attention from his parents?

_He'd always remembered when he'd come racing home from the academy as a young adult, bragging to anyone who would listen about having beaten both Storming Ox and Croc in a sparring match. The pride on his face as he'd told his parents about it, only to turn into barely disguised pain and bewilderment when they had met the news with blank stares, their gazes only briefly darting over his feathers- as they always did- before they'd turned and walked away, leaving him in his own self-pity._

_How he'd stared after them with well-controlled tears brimming in his eyes, before haughtily scoffing to himself, putting on the mask of cold indifference like he'd always done… _

Of course, he hadn't known that they'd been busy with a council meeting at the time, that the meeting had to interrupted for the sake of bringing the news to them, that they no doubt had silently rejoiced over it later. Sure, they'd always felt mildly ashamed about his color- after all, how could they possibly ignore the fact that their son was _white_ and they were the normal blue- but they'd always felt proud of his accomplishments, whether he'd actually realized that at the time or not.

Shen just wished he could have realized before it was too late.

Sighing, Shen eventually fell back into a feverish sleep, and this time his dreams were so chaotic and jumbled together that he didn't even try to comprehend them. He simply let his sub-consciousness do what it pleased with him.

* * *

><p>Lan was more worried than she'd ever been before. A few days had passed since Shen's… <em>incident<em>, for lack of a better word, in the garden, but his condition seemed to be getting worse. His feverish nightmares were becoming more and more violent- oftentimes he'd wake up but not be fully awake, his eyes partially glazed over as he continued to hallucinate. To make matters worse, his fever showed absolutely no signs of breaking, despite all the various plants and medicines that she'd forced down his gullet.

Plus, she'd had to listen to Zhong's moaning during all of this.

"This… this is all my fault… that stupid tail ring, I know it's special, but… Shen's m-my friend…" the raccoon sobbed out, despite Xun's attempts to soothe him. "I d-didn't know he would get that sick…"

"No one knew that he was going to get this sick, dude. Quit beating yourself up over it." Xun muttered, trying and evidently failing to be sympathetic toward Zhong.

"B- But Shen's more important than… that! He's… he's gonna die because of me, and it's… all my f-fault…"

"You saved him, didn't you? Now get a grip." Lan snapped, in her usual 'tough-love' tone of voice. "No one's going to die. Not on my watch." At least, she certainly hoped not. They'd come all this way, Shen couldn't just give up now! Not after all that the four of them had accomplished together! He'd saved her from an entire _army_- for no apparent reason- and now he'd put his health on the line to help Zhong. Then there was Xun and that knife-throwing incident…

She had to believe that Shen was changing- though for better or for worse, she couldn't exactly say. On one hand, it was nice to see him helping people out for a change… on the other hand, if it put his safety at stake this much, Lan wasn't sure how much she approved of it. Besides, she cared deeply for Shen, whether she actually realized it or not, far more deeply than the bonds of friendship could ever go.

As she stared out the window of the house, into the dark, moonless night, only one thought went racing into her head.

_Please, Shen, get well soon. For everybody's sake… especially mine._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Yay, another chapter! Please enjoy it and its heavily exaggerated dream/flashback sequences. I dunno, I just like messing with my character's minds, for some reason. Sue me.

Yes, Lan does kind of admit that she loves Shen in this chapter. She's just scared to admit that to him.

What with the start of a new school year and all that, I'm really not sure as to how much time I'll be getting to update things. So just don't expect quick updates of this story from about Wednesday on, okay?


	18. Dreams and Uncles

Lan didn't know what to feel more worried about- the fact that Zhong was slowly but surely sinking into mild depression over the subject of Shen's illness, or the fact that her cousin had been largely unresponsive for most of the day. If he wasn't already comatose, he was nearly in that state, and Lan had treated enough patients over her twelve years of living in Gongmen to know that once someone went comatose, things got _very_ ugly very quickly. Given the fact that she'd almost never seen Shen in this bad of a state, it was something to be concerned about. Not even Xun's pathetic attempts to cheer Zhong up brought a smile to her face.

"Hey, look, I made a smiley-face with mahjong tiles, see?"

"Err... that's nice, I guess." Zhong muttered, staring out the window absentmindedly.

"Oh, hey, wanna play with your action figures? Look, look... I'll let you be Crane this time..." Xun pried, hoping that the subject of one of Zhong's favorites out of the Five would bring a smile to his face.

"Eh."

"Oh, _for the love of_..." Xun hissed in exasperation, flaring his hood out a bit. "Can't you at least _try_ to be cheerful?"

"Can't you guys be realistic? Shen's gonna die because of us..." Zhong snapped, his ears pinned back in anger.

"No one's going to die, Zhong!" Lan hissed down at him, wishing for the umpteenth time that he would just shut up and stop wallowing in his own self-pity. If peacocks could snarl, Lan was fairly certain that was what she'd be doing at the moment. Oh, sure, all of it was just a cleverly thought-up act to hide her own worry, but still... "I am sick and tired of your moaning..."

"You're not the only one, apparently." Zhong muttered darkly, earning himself a venomous hiss from Xun.

"Zhong, one more word out of you, and I'll get Shen's lance, carve you into tiny pieces, and feed them to the crocodiles."

The raccoon shut up pretty quickly after that, as you can imagine. Zhong may not have had the best thinking skills in the world, but getting eaten by a bunch of over-sized reptiles wasn't really at the top of his current to-do list.

* * *

><p><em>It was dark again, and Shen could feel the presence of several- things, for lack of a better term, around him. They were holding him down, choking him, suffocating him, and no matter how much he writhed around, they wouldn't let him go. He'd tried kicking at them with his metal coverings already, only to realize with a sudden feeling of dread that his feet were uncovered. The emptiness of his robes was another factor as well- he was completely without weapons of any sort, he was utterly defenseless against these demons. The usual flaring of the tail-feathers hadn't worked either, only earning himself dark chuckles from them, and that fact terrified him more than anything else.<em>

_Nothing he did or said was going to even remotely phase these things. _

**_Oh Sheeennnn... _**_They hissed at him, seemingly delighting in his misery. _**_Sssstayyy with usss, Sheennnn... _**

"_No... go away, leave me alone..." Shen whimpered, trying to curl himself into as tight of a ball as he could muster to protect himself from the darkness. Yes, he was fully aware of just how pathetic he sounded, pleading for his life to be spared instead of fighting them tooth and nail- but what could he do? This was the kind of thing that would send even the bravest warriors scampering for the hills._

_**You'll never escape ussss, Sheeennnn... **The demons snickered, drawing in closer to him, and he was aware of the glint of crimson eyes and the flash of long canines in the darkness. **Give up. **_

"_I've already escaped you!" he screeched half-angrily, and half out of sheer terror, head darting around in search of any means of escape. "Besides... I already know that I'm a monster..." Shen muttered- no, no escape there, no escape there..._

_But wait! A momentary gap, a pinprick of light through the darkness... if he could just wriggle free for the tiniest of seconds, maybe he would be able to escape... flaring his tail-feathers once again, Shen was pleasantly surprised when they actually let go of him, before he discovered that they were humoring him, only letting him go so they could catch him again._

_He'd had this dream countless times when he was a hatchling, without knowing as to what or who it applied to, where he'd be running from the darkness, as fast as his fragile little legs could carry him, and the demons would only drag him down, screeching, into the abyss once more. **Come on, come on, move faster, legs... **_

_They were already catching up with him- no, he couldn't give up, not when he was almost there! Oh, what would be the point of shouting out for help anyway? No one would be able to hear him in this dream..._

_Suddenly, the demons shrank back in terror as a figure rose out of the light, coming towards them, vicious bird caws exploding from its beak as it drove them back away from Shen, and they let out loud growls of resentment at having their prey escape from them before diving back into the darkness. _

"_**Hah, glad that's over with. Those fellows are all bark and no bite, if you ask me. Come on, up you go." **Shen didn't know what to think as the bird-apparently another peacock-stretched out a wing. He didn't know who it was... the figure bore an uncanny resemblance to his father, and yet his father was usually a bit more dignified than this... _

_Oh, wait. The eyespots on the feathers were dyed orange, not florescent green as usual. Well, that was Lord Gang for you, as spontaneous as always. Or, rather, Uncle Gang._

"_Err... thank you... I suppose." Shen pronounced awkwardly before shakily rising to his feet. _

"_**Don't have to thank me, Shen. Anything for my daughter's friend." **Gang chuckled, then suddenly grew more serious. "**Suppose you still have a question on your mind, though..."**_

"_Several, actually. Why am I here? I... I'm not dead, am I?" Shen asked- oh, gods, he couldn't be dead, not yet, not now... not when he had so much to live for..._

"_**Oh, no... my word, boy, no. You still have many, MANY seasons ahead of you before that sort of thing happens." **Gang chuckled, shaking his head with slight mirth. **"I brought you here, actually."**_

_Oh, great. So his own uncle had purposefully dragged him through a field of demons just to save him? Shen didn't know whether to feel bewildered or infuriated at that thought as his uncle continued._

"_**So, why are you so set in the notion that you're a monster, hmm?" **_

"_What other term is there for it?" Shen snapped, his crest rising for the briefest of seconds before it lowered again. "I killed off an entire village, I took over the city, I **fired a cannon **at a footbridge full of innocent people..." The former warlord's breathing had become slightly erratic from all the emotion spilling out of him, and when he finally got it under control enough to continue, his voice was even quieter than before. "So if you can honestly look at me and tell me that I'm not a monster, you're even more crazy than I originally thought." _

"_**You didn't exactly kill off the entire village. Didn't your wolf friend ever tell you that there were some survivors?" **Gang watched as Shen's eyes widened slightly._

"_I always suspected that some had gotten away, but I always thought that they'd never manage to survive the winter... and besides, I'm not sure how I would have taken to the news." Shen mused, before narrowing his eyes once again. "But that still doesn't prove..."_

"_**Well, then, can you think of nothing good that you've done?"**_

"_Nothing really comes to mind." Shen mused. "Well... I suppose there was that invading army that I managed to ward off... with help, of course..." Oh, gods, he really hadn't done much of anything good. Assuming that he actually woke up sooner or later, he was going to do everything he could to change that. "But there's nothing else..."_

"_**Then let me name a few. You served under Master Thundering Rhino, a privilege few only dreamt of being granted. The group of friends you had were ever loyal to you, and you came from a perfectly happy family..."**_

_Any other time, Shen would have visibly winced at the mention of his family. But the mention of his friends- all of those friends had died, one of his own doing, and there was always the one death that he hadn't been able to prevent, that had spurred him on into the darkness... "All the same, the good outweighs the bad in this case."_

"_**But you are getting a second chance because of that. You haven't always done bad in your life, you know." **Gang intoned, gazing sympathetically down at his only nephew. _

"_I don't deserve a second chance." Shen's voice was noticeably broken, his whole frame shaking slightly. "I don't deserve kindness, or compassion..."_

"_**But you needed it. Lan hasn't abandoned you, has she? You need her, Shen, whether you realize it or not."**_

"_But look at how I've treated her..." _

"_**You of all people should know that Lan could never turn away a person in need." **Oh, great, his uncle was actually having the nerve to openly smirk at him now. **"What about Xun and Zhong?"**_

"_Well, yes, their hero worship of me is slightly gratifying, but..." _

"_**So don't you see? These people, at least, have forgiven you. Other people will, too, if you give them a reason to forgive you. But you need to forgive yourself first." **_

"_I don't see... how I can do that..." Shen stammered, lowering his gaze. Gods, if he was this awkward around his own uncle, he could just imagine how he'd have reacted if either of his parents had shown up. He'd probably be in the middle of a panic attack right now, if that was the case- and given how fragile his body was being in the waking world at the moment, Shen wasn't sure if he would actually be able to withstand the said attack. _

"_**Why not go to the place you fear going to the most?"** Oh, great, more philosophy this and wisdom that spat at him. His uncle hasn't been this insane when he was alive, had he?_

"_...Gongmen?" Well, he hadn't exactly feared going there before, but now the villagers would probably kill him on sight of him... and Shen couldn't say he blamed them._

"_**You know what I mean, Shen."**_

_Oh gods, not the panda village... he couldn't go there, he just couldn't. Not with what he'd done there, it would be like a soldier walking into an old battlefield, the memories would overwhelm him, and if that wasn't panic attack-inducing, he didn't know what was. "I... can't."_

"_**You can, if you actually let people help you this time around." **That insufferable smile still remained firmly glued to Gang's face, and while part of Shen wanted to leap up and smack him around until that smile was wiped off **permanently**...no, he had to put these thoughts out of his head. This was his uncle, for crying out loud, and the last thing he needed was to give the one person who may actually trust him a reason to hate him._

_He highly doubted that anything he did to Gang in the afterlife would actually affect him, either. _

_Besides, he hadn't done anything to deserve the help that people had to give, in his opinion. How could he ever hope to forgive himself, after how he'd treated everyone, the fact that they could possibly still hate him even after he tried to make amends... and just how did someone like himself go about making amends, anyway? _

"_**Remember what the soothsayer said- you have to let love into your life to succeed in it."** Gang intoned, the same happy smile lighting up his face. **"Now, I really must be going. Remember what I said... oh, Shen, one more thing..."**_

"_Yes, **darling** uncle?" This time, Shen let just a hint of his old sarcasm creep back into his tone, though he did try to keep it as respectful as he could. _

"_**Hmm, sarcastic as always, I see... anyway, be good to Lan for me, will you? You'd be amazed at what I could do, even in the afterlife, if you desert her, trick her, or otherwise harm her. The number of times you've tried to impale her so far hasn't exactly given you brownie points." **_

"_I'll try." That was the best reply Shen could come up with? He was losing his touch even more than he'd thought._

"_**Good man. Now, wake up, will you? Your friends are waiting for you." ** With that, the outline of Gang began to dissolve, and Shen was left in nothing more than an empty field..._

* * *

><p>"Shen! Wake up already!"<p>

"Yeah, c'mon, wake up! Don't think I didn't see you flicker your eyes just then!" Was that Xun's voice, or Zhong's? Hard to tell, really, considering how delirious he still was. Shen's eyes slowly blinked themselves open, focusing on three happy and yet mildly concerned faces hovering over his.

"Are you awake yet?" Xun asked, peering down at Shen.

"If I wasn't, would I have bothered to open my eyes?" he snapped, quirking an eyebrow at the snake.

"Guess not. Oh, well... Zhong, you can go talk to -oof!" Xun exclaimed as he was briefly trampled by Zhong, who had flung himself around Shen's neck, sobbing.

"Oh, Shen, I'm so sorry, I thought you were going to die, I'll never ask you to go out in the rain ever again, just please please **please **forgive me..." The raccoon was interrupted by Shen clamping his mouth shut with a free wing.

"Do I look like I'm dying to you?" he hissed lightly. "Besides, it was my own fault for losing track of the time. Now stop that pathetic blubbering."

"O..of course, it's just... I didn't want you to die, after you cared that much about..." Zhong whimpered, burying his head in Shen's feathers.

"Well, I'm fine now, so if you would stop strangling me, it would be much appreciated."

The raccoon proceeded to (rather reluctantly) detach himself from the peacock's neck, as if afraid that the moment he let go of Shen, he was going to fall back into a coma again. "You... you're really sure that he's gonna be okay?" he spoke up, turning to Lan, his voice trembling.

"I haven't been watching him like a hawk for the past two days for nothing. He'll be fine, he just needs to rest and keep his strength up." Lan said, grinning. "I'm as glad as you are that he's awake, though."

"Good, because I was getting tired of his whining... hey, it's true, you were crying a lot..." Xun muttered in response to the dirty look that Zhong gave him.

Shen, meanwhile, had let the information sink into his brain- Zhong didn't hate him, he'd actually been so concerned that he was going to die that he'd stood by the peacock through thick and thin. Lan hadn't deserted him, she'd done all she could to make sure that he recovered from his bout of illness. They did care about him. They did.

To the former warlord, that made all the difference in the world.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> This update is so late. So very late indeed. x.x And words can't even begin to describe how cheesy this chapter is, especially that incredibly creepy and awkward dream sequence. Pff, Gang is such an awkward uncle. He's kind of based off of my uncles, actually... in fact, I think most of my family members are clinically insane. (Go figure.)

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, guys. School has kind of been chaining me to the wall. I promise, the next chapter will be up as soon as possible. (You're a terrible liar, Seaside.)

Also... 100 REVIEWS HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP ASKJLKGJLA- *brain overload* I love you guys so much right now. SO FREAKING MUCH. *hugs all of you* Now, do me a favor and go review 'CFAOP' for me, will you? It's been kind of neglected review-wise lately.


	19. Monsters and Admitting

Lan was still worried about Shen, needless to say. For the gods' sake, you didn't just come out a coma and be all fine and dandy afterwards, it took time for someone to recover after all that. Her cousin wasn't out of the woods yet, not by a long shot, and she wouldn't rest until she knew for sure that Shen was safe. The last time she had seen him like this, he'd just barely avoided being crushed to death by his own cannon- of course, he'd managed to recover fairly quickly then, but there was always the odd chance that his immune system had been weakened enough by both the coma and the coughing fits to-

_You're over-reacting again. Relax. Your darling boyfriend will be fine. _A little voice- she couldn't tell if it was her own thoughts, or just another part of her sub-consciousness- rang out.

She wanted to spit out a remark- perhaps the age-old ' he isn't my boyfriend, I'm just worried about him' excuse. But part of her knew that, deep down inside, that it wasn't true. Lan wanted Shen, she cared for him- not to mention that she may have found him just the teeniest bit attractive. Well, his voice _was_ awfully seductive, if you thought about it- very whispery, when he wasn't screaming at her to get away from him and leave him be. Of course, there had been that one incident when she'd been staring at Shen just a tad too suggestively for her own good...

_Ugh, for the love of the gods, Lan. Could you be anymore of a sexist pig? Just because you're in love doesn't mean you get to tell the entire world about it. _

Lan chose to ignore the voice in her head for the time-being. She knew she could change Shen for the better, if she could just convince him that he wasn't a monster just because of his past. Okay, nothing really justified slaying an entire village, but still. She'd done almost the exact same thing when she'd let her emotions get the better of her, with the fox village. Lan used to deeply regret doing that, thinking that the deed made her a monster- but heck, if Shen could forgive himself, she could too.

The only thing she was regretting at the moment was letting Xun and Zhong have free reign over preparing Shen's meals, since the raccoon still found himself guilty for what had happened that night, and wanted to make up for it. Lan had really only agreed to it because he wouldn't stop pestering her about it- the two had very minimal cooking experience, after all-and now all she had to hope for was that they didn't burn the house down just trying to make a stew. Or brutally mutilate themselves with the cooking utensils, as they now seemed to be doing.

"Dude, hold the knife like this... oh, for the love of the gods, you're gonna chop your fingers off if you're not careful..." Xun's exasperated voice came from the kitchens.

"Like this? Oh, wait, maybe holding it _this_ way is better..."

"_**Zhong!**_ Crap... watch where you're swinging that thing, will you?" The cobra had, apparently, just barely managed to dodge Zhong's attempt at adjusting the knife's position.

"Terribly sorry for trying to chop your head off. It is tempting, though." Zhong snapped, angrily stirring the stew.

" Hahaha, you're just an absolute riot..." Xun hissed sarcastically. "For the record, these are huge vegetable chunks... what're you trying to do, choke him to death?"

"Well, forgive me if I haven't exactly practiced cutting vegetables up for a while!"

"You have to make the proportions equal..." Xun rolled his eyes slightly.

"To heck with the proportions! Don't tick me off while I have a knife in my hand, dude..."

"Pff, yeah right. Like you could honestly do anything with that..." Xun sighed, seeming to temporarily forget that it's really not a good idea to taunt someone holding a very large kitchen knife.

"Oh, yeah? If Shen can do it, so can I-"

The heavy smell of burning stew began to drift from the kitchen.

"Oh, crap... the soup's burning."

"Well, don't just stand there, dude! Throw something over it!" Xun shouted.

"Ah, you're over-reacting. We'll be fine." Zhong scoffed.

"... The house is made _entirely of wood_."

"Ah, crap... here, here, put the lid on it, quick!" Zhong cried. "And turn the fire off!"

"Okay, okay, I think it worked. Hey, maybe we should ask Shen about it..."

Lan smirked to herself at that. Knowing Shen, he'd probably only have tips on how to make the fire bigger. She didn't think she'd ever seen the former warlord purposefully trying to put a fire out... at least, not that she knew of. Sighing to herself, Lan left the room to go check on Shen. She was pretty convinced that the duo could take care of themselves for a while. If they couldn't, well, she'd be sure that everyone got out of the house as quickly as possible. After all, you could never trust men in the kitchen these days.

* * *

><p>Shen had been sleeping when she'd come in, and although Lan had felt sightly skeptical about observing her cousin while he was in this kind of condition, he'd woken up as soon as he heard her footsteps on the wooden floor. <em>Okay, okay, this is your own family member, Lan. No need to get nervous. <em>Pff, yeah, taking into account how many times the mentioned family member had tried to murder her over the past few days, Lan thought she had every reason to be nervous. Okay, yes, she knew very well that Shen would never dare to hurt her- not when he was so vulnerable, anyway- but still...

_Gods, Lan, what's Shen done to you? You're jumpier than a frightened antelope. _

_Thanks for the kind and encouraging kernels of wisdom. _Lan internally grumbled, even as she had to admit that the fact was true. If Shen wanted to hurt her, surely he would've done it by now, and be spared of yet another annoyance in his life. Besides, he'd done more than enough to show that he had changed, so that was good enough for Lan. How embarrassing was this, watching her own cousin sleep- but Lan had to admit, Shen looked much more peaceful while he was sleeping than he ever would in real life. Well, when he wasn't in the grips of an awful nightmare or anything.

"Shen, wake up. We've got some more medicine for you." Lan said softly, but with a tone of voice that clearly stated 'you better wake the hell up right about _now_ before I forcefully feed you the said medicine'.

"Mmph... thank you for the sudden wakeup call. I was having a lovely dream, you know." Shen stated, sitting up in the bed and absent-mindedly rubbing his eyes.

"... Do I even want to know what that dream was about?" Lan muttered, raising an eyebrow at Shen.

"It mostly involved hitting Zhong over the head with some blunt object or another. Among other things."

"Oh, for the love of... _that's_ your idea of a 'good dream'?" she stated, slapping a wing over her eyes. Man, she'd never doubted that her cousin had been a bit mentally deranged, but this took it to new extremes...

"Don't tell me you've never been tempted to do that to him." Shen smirked.

"Yeah, mostly because it's kind of weird to bang your friends over the head with large objects. Though, I do admit, he can be a pain in the butt sometimes..." Lan mused. "Maybe I could hang him from the ceiling for a while or something if he misbehaves... or dye his fur a different color..."

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Shen said, letting out a hearty laugh before slowly letting it fade into silence.

Lan was quick to notice it and give a sympathetic look in Shen's direction. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just... that's the first time I've laughed... I mean, _actually_ laughed... in so long." he spoke absent-mindedly. "I've been so wrapped up in the past for so long, I almost forgot what it was like to be happy..."

"That's understandable, I guess." Lan mused, not noticing how Shen's voice seemed to waver at the end of the sentence.

"All this time, I thought I was doing something right... but I wasn't. I was killing innocent people... and I probably would have kept doing it..." Shen manged to stammer out. "Do you know, I even had... a dream about it..."

"Shen..." Lan whispered, laying a sympathetic wing on his shoulder.

"Everyone that I used to know was there... and they said they forgave me for everything...and just when I was about to go to them, the dream just... changed. I saw myself killing all of them... it was awful, just _awful_..." he stammered, shuddering.

"You only saw that because that's what you think is going to happen again." Lan murmured. "It won't, I promise..."

"How do you know?" Shen snapped, trying to keep his voice from collapsing into terror-filled sobs. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm still an insane wreck. I could go back to... to the way I was before at any given time. And everyone says they feel sorry for me, they want me to change... they shouldn't feel sorry for me... there's nothing left to feel even remotely sympathetic towards."

"Stop talking like that." Lan said forcefully. "You _did_ change. I know you have. From the beginning, you were changed. You could have killed any one of us whenever you wanted to, and you didn't. You could have left us and journeyed to the Valley of Peace yourself, but you didn't."

"I was crippled. I had to stay..."

"You could have let me get killed by the wolves. But you didn't."

Shen's heart skipped a few beats as he let out a shaky exhale, letting the words sink right down to his very core. _Speak up, you fool! This is exactly the right time to tell her what you think of her, how you feel about her..._

_No, she can't love me. She can't possibly. _Shen thought to himself, shaking his head slightly. Lan was a friend, nothing more, and that was that. Yet his mouth seemed to be moving on its own, with no action of his own behind it, and he spoke once more. "Do you know..."

"Yes?"

"That night when the soothsayer visited us... she told me my fortune..."

"Doesn't she always do that?" Lan asked, smirking slightly.

"She said that love would be my path to supposed happiness... but how can it be? Even if I loved someone, they'd never return the favor. I'm a monster... and who could ever love someone like me?" Shen muttered, gazing down at the floor. _It couldn't have been true, that prophecy just couldn't have been true... _

Lan found herself speaking up through no means of her own- her brain seemed to be controlling her mouth, putting words into it and then projecting themselves out into the air. She couldn't hold back now, she had to tell Shen how she felt if it killed her.

"_I_ love you."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>DUN DUN DUUUNNNNN. Haha, seriously, though. This is a 'romance' story, they had to admit it to each other sooner or later. Yes, yes, I am aware that this chapter is pitifully short. Next one will be longer, I promise. And is it just sad that I actually started tearing up while I was writing this chapter?

SHEN, WHY U MAKE ME SO EMOTIONAL? WHY, I ASK YOU, WHYYYYY?

*Ahem.*

I don't blame Xun and Zhong for having trouble in the kitchen. It's impossible to know which utensil does what. Not to mention that I can't cook to save my life... x.x


	20. Love Is a Wonderful Thing

Shen seemed to forget how to breathe for several minutes, his heart pounding in his chest as the information sunk in. _She loves me... she loves me, oh gods... _No, he couldn't have heard her right, maybe he was still delirious from the illness he'd had barely more than a day ago... she was his _cousin_, for the love of the gods, and this didn't add up. Why would she love someone who'd been a total jerk towards her for the majority of their time together? Maybe he was still hallucinating or something, who knew?

What terrified him even more, however, was the fact that a small part of him actually wanted this to be true...

"You... you can't possibly l-love me..." he somehow managed to stammer out through his shallow breaths.

"Why not?" Lan snapped, her eyes narrowing.

"You're a family member. I've done nothing to deserve your love. Furthermore, it's certainly out of character for you..."

"Whoever said love had to stay in character?" Lan chuckled, grinning. "Well, then, maybe I could prove that I'm in love..."

"Oh, please. To do that, you'd have to do something so completely unlike you, so crazy and-" Shen's sentence was cut off at that moment, because Lan decided to do something he was sure he would have murdered anyone else for- lean in and give him a kiss.

Shen would be lying if he said that he'd been prepared for that particular action- quite on the contrary, in fact. His whole body tensed up, thoughts racing a mile a minute in his head. Lan was doing something few people had actually dared to do, but all that mattered to him was that he so desperately _wanted _this to happen. _Mmmph... oh, come on, Shen. She can't actually like you... it's possible that she's just pretending, putting on an elaborate act..._

_Oh, bugger off, you. _

Shen fought with his thoughts for what seemed like an eternity before finally giving in to the kiss, eyes closing, whole body relaxing... was that Xun and Zhong he heard loudly whooping from the doorway? Irrelevant._ Concentrate. _Oh, gods, this actually felt surprisingly good for his first kiss. As much as part of his brain was still recoiling at the action, Shen was surprising himself at how willingly he was giving into it...

_**You sexist pig! Fight it, fight it, fight it! Your goal is to get to the Valley of Peace, not be kissing some commoner female! **_

_Be quiet. _Shen snapped at his subconsciousness silently, blatantly ignoring its screaming at him to stop this at once. Besides, what would be the point of traveling to the Valley of Peace now? Just so he could be met with failure again? He'd already just barely escaped death once, and he had no intention of doing it twice. Avoiding his fate wasn't necessarily going to help him at this point...

Besides, being defeated by another species wasn't his fate now. His fate was to fall in love. And for once, he wasn't trying to escape that fate.

Oh, he absolutely _hated _when that goat was right, but in this case he'd make an exception. _Just goes to show that you should never doubt the opinion of your surrogate mother, I suppose. _

The kiss seemed to last too long and yet go too fast at the same time, as Lan had quickly pulled back, a slightly horrified look on her face. Quite honestly, Lan had no idea what had come over her in that moment, but she knew that no matter what Shen thought of it, they were simply meant to be together. Nevertheless, Lan couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed as the kiss was ended. _ Dang it, why couldn't his tail feathers have flared up, too... did I seriously just go there? Yes. Yes I did. _

"Please don't hate me for that." Lan whispered, eyes downcast. For the love of the gods, just what had gotten into her today? She wasn't normally so clingy toward other people... was she? _Oh, screw what's normal and what's not, we're in love. _

"I could never hate you, Lan." She never thought that Shen's voice could sound so unbelievably gentle, and for a moment she almost wondered if she was imagining it. "I thought I did, once... but I could never hate you." A slight chuckle rang out from his throat at that moment. "If anything, you should hate me..."

"Oh, _**you wish**_, city boy." And then they were kissing again.

Yep. Totally not imagining it.

* * *

><p>Xun and Zhong, on the other hand, could hardly believe their eyes. They'd only left these two alone for what, ten minutes at the most? And here they were, practically on the brink of <em>straddling<em> each other as they shared what was quite possibly one of the most passionate kisses in history.

Naturally, the raccoon and cobra were thrilled.

"Oh, gods, they've already gotten to the kissing stage. Give it another minute and they'll be on top of each other..."

"_**Zhong! **_Gods, since when did you become such a pervert?" Xun hissed, giving his friend the nastiest death glare he could muster under the circumstances.

"Since I discovered that our best friend and our hero have been making out with each other for the past two minutes."

"...You're actually _timing_ this whole thing?"

"Yes. Yes, I am. Now seriously, let me watch. One of them's gonna make a move sooner or later, I just know it." Zhong muttered.

"_Zhong..._"

"What? The romantic tension in there is unbelievable! Any moment now, Shen'll..."

The quick smack of scale against fur quickly put an end to _that_ train of thought. Needless to say, Xun really didn't need that particular image popping into his head just yet. This was their best friend, after all, not their guinea pig! "Look, man, I'm happy for them too, but don't you think you're getting just a _**tad**_ bit carried away with this?"

"It's love, dude. Brings out the best and worst in all of us..."

Facepalm.

* * *

><p>After a rather rowdy kissing session (and Zhong's perverted commentary from the sidelines), Lan and Shen had finally- err, wound down a bit with their romantic advances. Both of them were fairly new to the romance game, after all, and they wanted to do anything but rush it farther than they had to- no matter how much Zhong had wanted them to.<p>

The raccoon had made it quite clear that he had wanted to see- err, let's say a bit more than just kissing from the two of them, and only Shen's snappish remark of 'don't even think about it, you revolting little ' had put an end to the conversation.

The rest of the day had been relatively uneventful... that is, until Lan had brought up the subject of why Shen was putting off his journey to the Valley of Peace.

"Needless to say, you've put off getting there for long enough. So, are we journeying there, or not?" she'd questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"...My motives have changed, so I don't suppose we will be going. Besides, it would be too long and dangerous of a journey for..."

"You'd better not be implying what I think you're implying." Lan hissed, eyes narrowing.

"I assure you that I'm not, dear." Shen grinned.

"So long as you're not saying that I couldn't fend for myself."

"You're more than capable of taking care of yourself, as you've shown me already. No, we have to journey somewhere else." Shen muttered, his gaze distant.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense."

"...We need to travel back to Gongmen." Shen intoned, mentally wincing at the notion. Gods, there had to be a better way of finally being at peace with himself than that...

"Gongmen? Shen, you know they'll kill you if you set so much as a talon inside the city borders! Are you crazy!" Lan hissed, glaring at him. "What compelled you to go back, anyhow?"

"...This is going to sound slightly strange, but your father told me that I should. In a dream..."

"Is it just me, or have you been having _**really**_ weird dreams lately?"

"Yes, yes, I know, but... it's the only way that I can truly be happy with myself. Now, granted, I have no idea what will happen..."

"They could kill you. What's the chance that they'll listen to you?"

"They very well could... but finally being at peace with myself is worth the risk." Shen mused. "No one said you had to come, after all..."

"Are you kidding me?" Lan grinned, jumping up. "It's an adventure, and I'm always up for an adventure. Lead the way."

"That's my girl."

"Peahen." Lan corrected, giggling a bit as she did so.

"Indeed."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> DANG IT WHY IS THIS CHAPTER SO MUSHY AND SHORT AND PERVERTED? WHYYYYY?

*Ahem.*

So, the long-awaited romance chapter. Love it or hate it as you will. I'm really too tired from writing this all day to care. So, please enjoy your early Christmas present. (Or whatever it is that you celebrate.) I wish you all a Merry Xmas and a happy new year *cough*ofthepeacock*cough*, and I hope you all get everything you ask for on this holiday. Have fun, spend time with your family, the whole deal.

I'm getting KFP2 for Christmas, so hopefully that will give me more writing inspiration. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go collapse on the couch and watch 'It's a Wonderful Life' now.

PEACE OUT, PEEPS. :)


	21. An Unexpected Journey

Whelp, I'm back! And better than ever, hopefully. What took me so long, you may ask? Basically a plethora of computer issues and writer's block alike. Hope I didn't lose too many followers of the story through such a long wait, haha.

Now, on to the story!

* * *

><p>After the announcing of the trip to Lan, both of the resident peafowl had decided to tell Xun and Zhong about the journey to Gongmen as soon as possible, in order to make the reason for their trip quite clear. Being the great gossips that they were, the raccoon and cobra probably would have found out about the trip one way or another anyway, so it was really in both Lan and Shen's best interest to tell them beforehand.<p>

Unfortunately, Shen hadn't quite gotten the enthusiastic response to the announcement that he'd been expecting. Xun had been calmly and quietly sipping at his ginseng tea, and had nearly choked on it when the news had been revealed, spitting quite a considerable amount of it straight into Shen's face, much to the peacock's chagrin. From there, the cobra had lapsed into a rather violent coughing fit (no doubt as a result of nearly choking himself) that had given Shen a strange sense of déjà vu, as he could recall quite vividly the days spent in bed, recovering from similar symptoms.

Zhong's only response had been to stare at Shen wide-eyed, his already bushy tail fluffing up a bit due to shock and nervousness. (It had taken all of Shen's self-control to not break down in hysterics at the sight of it.)

Somehow, Xun had managed to get out at least a semi-coherent sentence through his coughs. "Ahem… okay, um, this is a bit… herm… sudden and all… and what made you want to… ahem…. go back there?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Shen muttered, inwardly resisting the urge to slap a wing over his face in exasperation, or at the very least let out a _very_ heavy sigh. _For the love of the gods, why can't this ever be easy…?_

Zhong, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes in suspicion from across the room. "Hold on! I bet this has something to do with how you and Lan were makin' out last night…"

"_**Raccoon…" **_Shen's barely audible hiss rang through the air, a silent warning to Zhong that quite clearly stated that unless he dropped the subject right then and there, it was going to have _**very**_ ugly consequences.

"Well, you were! And in any case, you were banished from there…" Zhong's remark earned him a barely visible flinch from Shen, and Lan chose the moment to half-heartedly glare at Zhong before shooting a sympathetic gaze in Shen's direction. She knew better than anyone that Shen was still rather touchy about the subject of his banishment, and that bringing it up when they were just about to travel back to his original home was not necessarily a good move.

But Shen had quickly recovered from his mild shock, and was quick to send a snappy remark back in the raccoon's direction. "Thank you _ever_ so much for bringing that subject up…"

"You know they'll kill you if ya go into the city, so why are we goin' back there in the first place? I mean, not that I don't wanna see Gongmen again and everything, 'cause I haven't been there in forever, but _still_…"

"I will give you the next three seconds to drop the conversation before I personally find the most awful method of torture imaginable to use on you, raccoon!" And there came the inevitable explosion of Shen's temper that they had all been expecting- tail feathers flaring up, displaying each individual red eye like a warning sign, eyes narrowed into crimson slits, beak curved into an angry snarl.

"Shen, don't." Lan had stood up in the exact same moment, placing a cautious wing on his shoulder. "He wasn't thinking about what he was saying, and I'm sure he'll reconsider his words, _won't you, Zhong?"_ The last words of Lan's sentence were delivered with so much venom that it was clear Zhong had better think long and hard about what he was about to say.

"All right, all right. Errm… sorry about that, dude. Mouth just starts rambling on and on, you know."

"You're telling me." Xun finally muttered, having recovered from his coughing fit enough to inject his opinion into the conversation.

"…Will you stay out of this, please?" Zhong growled through gritted teeth, muttering to himself before turning back to Shen.

"Everyone just quit it." Lan had finally reached her breaking point, raising her voice to address the entire household. "Fighting unnecessarily isn't going to help us in the long run, and besides, we've got a long day of traveling ahead of us. Zhong, just going back to Gongmen is affecting Shen enough without you making comments about it, so I suggest you think more carefully about what you say to someone before you just go blurting it out."

Shen actually managed to feel sorry for the raccoon for the briefest of seconds- he actually looked genuinely sheepish, shuffling his feet while fiddling with the buttons of his vest. "Sorry, Lan."

"I should certainly hope you are." Lan muttered, glaring down at Zhong. "Now, everyone just relax and start gathering traveling supplies up. We've got a long day ahead of us." With that, Lan hurriedly left the room with Shen in tow, shooting one last warning glance at Zhong before they were gone.

Xun's only response was to openly smirk at Zhong. "You really screwed that up, didn't you?"

"Shut up."

"You're just mad because you didn't see what you wanted to see with Shen and Lan the other night, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?" Zhong snapped, ears pinning back against his forehead.

"Or you're just mad that Shen finally got himself a girlfriend- who just so happens to be our best friend- and you didn't." Xun taunted, a wicked grin stretching across his face.

"You're single too, y'know!"

"Yeah, and I'm fine with it. Whether or not _you_ are is the question."

Shen and Lan both mentally winced as some _**very**_ colorful language spread through the house, rising to an angry high-pitched yell at its most vile. Zhong was most definitely not pleased, and now he was choosing to take it out on the most vulnerable member of the household.

Well, so long as he had something to rant about other than the trip to Gongmen, then Lan supposed that was all right. Turning back to Shen, she whispered in a low monotone so as not to alert Zhong to her inquiry. "Out of curiosity, just what method of torture would you have been using on him if I hadn't been standing there?"

For a moment, Shen's gaze grew distant, and Lan mentally slapped herself at the wording of the question- it was going to make her imply that she still didn't completely trust Shen, that he could still revert back to his old ways, which seemed to be what he was terrified of the most right now. Sure, he would need to learn how to control his temper a bit more, but at least he wasn't completely insane anymore, and to even _imply _that he was would be very cruel indeed.

Thankfully, Shen seemed to take the question surprisingly well, despite his reaction to it. "You of all people should know that those days are past me now…"

"Well, you have to admit, it was kind of hard to tell whether you were actually joking or not back there." Lan sighed.

"…Old habits die hard, as the saying goes."

"Likely story… oh, lighten up, you, I'm only joking!" Lan scoffed at Shen's put-upon expression. "Now, honestly, what would you have done?"

"I suppose, if I were still the person to do that sort of thing, that I would have forcibly dragged him to the riverbank, thrown him in, and watched as the crocodiles devoured him." Shen smirked, chuckling. "Or, of course, there's always the much less violent option of stringing him up by his tail in a tree…"

"I could help with that, you know. Who knows how much spare rope we have around this house, anyway?"

"…I never thought I'd see the day when you'd actually go along with one of my schemes." Shen replied, shaking his head in disbelief.

"There's a simple explanation for that, you know." Lan smiled, giggling a bit.

"And that is?"

"I fell in love."

The sounds of laughter soon rang out through the house, quickly replacing the frenzied swearing that still hung in the air. For the most part, the household was in high spirits, and they would soon be departing. Although the shadow of how Gongmen's citizens would react to him was still hanging over Shen's head, for now he'd try to swallow his anxiety and make the trip enjoyable. No one liked a person who was being a sourpuss for no apparent reason, after all.

Shen was finally going home after almost a half-month of absence… but he wasn't even sure if he could call it that anymore.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Shen, wanna play 'action figures' with us?"<p>

" _**No**_." Hadn't he made it quite clear that he wasn't going to get involved in their insipid little games?

"…Please? Look, we'll let you be whoever you want, I promise." Zhong came bounding up to him, casually shoving a poorly-made figurine of Tigress right into Shen's face.

"I said no."

"…Oh, c'mon."

"You ask me one more time, raccoon, and so help me, I will make you swallow your own tail." Shen growled, tail feathers flaring up ever so slightly.

"Party pooper." Zhong pouted, flouncing back to Xun. "Okay, so where were we?"

"When Tigress did that spinning roundhouse kick to…"

"Oh, right… I'm still Viper, right?" Zhong asked, ears perking up slightly.

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

Sighing, Shen resigned himself to simply watching the game that Xun and Zhong were acting out. Perhaps he could give pointers on how to properly position the dol- errm, action figures- into the kung fu stances. _Oh, gods, no. What are you thinking? _Not only were styles other than Cai Li Fao not really his forte, but it would only bring back memories of his absolutely painful defeat in the harbor no less than a few weeks ago.

Had it really been that short of a time since he'd been defeated and had reformed? It felt like he'd changed so much over a matter of a few weeks, and looking back on it, Shen could hardly believe that time had gone by so quickly. The last few weeks seemed like a blur compared to his time in Gongmen, and yet he'd done so much more during this time. He'd met new friends, seen things he had never seen before, and certainly made new enemies. That much was certain.

He'd also inadvertently found the woman of his dreams, whether he actually wanted to or not.

Shen had to admit, though, he couldn't help but smirk slightly at Xun and Zhong's occasional shouts of 'fear our skills, villain' as they fought out battle scenes with the various action figures. Occasionally, they'd bend the figures' flexible joints a bit too far and have them fall over, but for the most part they seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was only when Zhong's heroic shouts got a bit too loud for his own good that Shen decided to step in.

"For the love of the gods, be quiet, raccoon! Do you want everyone this side of China to know we're here?"

This had apparently been enough to evoke a mild lecture from Lan, who pulled him aside. "Look, just because you're anxious about the trip doesn't mean you're entitled to be nasty to everyone."

"I'm not being…" Shen protested, but one glare from Lan quickly silenced his protest.

"Look, I know you don't want to go back to Gongmen…"

"Is it any wonder, after what I've done there?" he snapped, crest flattening.

"…But just running from your fears your whole life isn't going to solve the problem." Lan murmured, gazing up at him sympathetically. "It's only going to make it worse."

Dang it, but she was right. Shen absolutely _hated_ when she was right.

"You know, there's a saying- 'One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it'. That's what you're doing right now, that's what you've _been _doing ever since the panda village. If you keep running from your fears, eventually you'll have to face them, one way or another." Lan muttered, gazing up at him. "And who knows what might happen if you're not prepared to face them?"

Shen breathed a heavy sigh, crest flattening. Dang it, but she was right. What good had running from his inevitable fate ever done him? None, that's what. He had almost died the first time with the panda anyway, regardless of how many of them he'd slain to try and keep the soothsayer's prophecy from coming true. Had he really been so consumed with rage that he hadn't paid better attention to where he was aiming his knives, or was there another motive behind the last of the cannons almost crushing him? Had fate meant for him to almost die, and then wind up here? He had to wonder.

It was being a senseless coward that had gotten him into trouble in the first place- well, that, and the question of just how mentally sound he had been. But Lan was right- there would be no more running from his fears from here on out. It was time to face them, regardless of what might happen.

All Shen could do now was hope that he was up for the challenge.

* * *

><p>The group had made camp rather early in the night, based on the theory that night fell fast in the jungle and that the sun was likely to set soon anyway. Xun and Zhong had some- err, rather interesting quests to go find fuel for the fire, the majority of which being filled with complains about getting splinters and not being able to navigate through the thick bamboo groves. Then when they finally did get the fire started- okay, Shen had to admit, Zhong's cries of 'I have created fire' were pretty darn hilarious- it was burning much too slowly for his liking. Quite often, Shen found himself wishing he had some gunpowder to throw into the flames just to see what would happen.<p>

And then, just when Shen thought that things couldn't get any worse on this trip, Zhong suggesting telling scary stories to pass the time. Needless to say, Zhong's idea of a 'scary story' wasn't actually all that scary.

"Then when he opened the door- which is after he walked down the hallway- he stopped for a minute…"

"Get on with it already." Xun moaned from the fireside. "This is painful."

"All right already. So he opened the door, and what d'you think he saw?"

"Um, let me guess… the end of this totally _lame _story?" Xun hissed out, flicking his tongue out in irritation.

"No! It was the monster, the three-headed bear… thing, and you know it!" Zhong muttered, scowling.

"It was a three-headed goat. You're ruining the story."

As the group continued to argue, Lan eventually stepped in and broke it up, and then that was when the real fun had started. Zhong had started pressuring everyone else to tell scary stories, and while Lan and Xun had outright refused, Shen hadn't been able to resist the temptation. He'd found himself telling a story that had, quite frankly, scared the wits out of him when he was younger and his father had told it to him, about a vicious dragon or _something_ that lived near a river and came out at night to devour any townspeople that strayed too far from the protection of the village.

Shen, thinking about it afterwards, admitted that he may have gone into more detail than was necessary about the slaughtering of innocent townspeople (ah, the perks of being a former villain), because about halfway through the tale Xun had tightly wrapped himself around Zhong's neck, hyperventilating slightly. Zhong, whether out of fright or because

Xun was partially suffocating him, quite literally had his eyes bugging out of their sockets, and the nearby screech of a nocturnal bird had all but sent him into convulsions.

Lan had been quick to give him a rather stern lecture- somewhere between 'what were you thinking' and 'they'll be up the rest of the night'- and Shen had felt immediately guilty for what he had done, inwardly having to resist the urge to slap a wing over his face in exasperation. Yes, he knew quite well that he'd been a former warlord and such, but that didn't mean it gave him the right to go around scaring people half to death. _Maybe I should have picked a milder story…_

Of course, Lan had made quite sure that he'd apologized immediately- and whether or not the duo had actually accepted it or not had yet to be answered. All in all, it hadn't exactly been Shen's greatest moment, and it probably wouldn't be the last mistake that he made on this trip.

Thankfully, the mild hostility that had settled in between the group vanished rather quickly as soon as the first stars began to come out. The group had simply settled in to watch the twinkling orbs, and after a while the group began to discuss what they'd always thought that the stars were when they were younger.

"Me, I always thought that they were fireflies. Man, you should've seen my face when my dad told me they were only stars." Zhong laughed, gazing up at the now star-filled sky. "Wish someone had painted it or something."

"I always thought that they were just holes in the sky or some- don't look at me like that, it's true!" Xun hissed out at Zhong's smirk in his direction.

"My mother and father used to tell me that they were our ancestors watching over us from the heavens. Or something like that." Lan muttered, suddenly looking very subconscious.

"…You mean a bunch of dead people are watching us from up in the sky?" Xun whispered incredulously.

"Yeah, they are. What, you've got a problem with my family's spiritual beliefs?" Lan hissed, giving the snake a rather impressive death glare from where she sat.

"No, it's just… I'd rather not have that image popping into my head right now." Xun muttered, lowering his gaze. "What about you, Shen?"

"I… suppose I always thought of them as distant firework explosions, off in space. And I always used to wonder what it would be like, up there beyond the stars. Of course, those sorts of things quickly lost interest for me…" Shen murmured, staring up at the shining orbs contemplatively for a moment.

"Figures he'd think of something explosive…" Zhong muttered, who was still rather sore over being scared out of his wits by a simple story. This earned him the mother of all death glares from Shen.

"Well, it is getting kind of late. Maybe we should wrap it up for the night." Lan spoke from her spot by the fireside, where she had been staring distractedly into the flames.

"Yeah, 'cause I'm still beat because _someone_ kept tripping over me on the way to get firewood!" Xun hissed, flaring his hood out as he stared Zhong down.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you look like a stick in the dark." Zhong retorted, pinning his ears back.

"A stick shaped like a snake?"

"It could happen, y'know."

"All right already, you two." Lan's stern voice came from the fireside. "Get some sleep; we've got a long day of traveling ahead of us tomorrow."

"Glad to." Zhong muttered, lying back on the makeshift mats that they'd brought along to provide at least some form of a comfortable bed. The raccoon closed his eyes for a few minutes before leaning over in Xun's direction. "Psst, Xun. You awake?"

"Well, yeah."

"Betcha I fall asleep before you." Zhong stated, eyes mischievously gleaming.

"Oh, it is so _on_." Shen watched in amusement as both of them flopped down onto the mats, fake-snoring loudly as they tried to get into some semblance of sleeping positions.

Lan let out a small chortle at the sight as well, smiling. "Seems like one minute they're fighting and the next they're friends again. I wonder how they do it?"

Shen let out a long sigh at that. "Yes. You do have to wonder." He _really _didn't want to get into the topic of friendships at the moment- since all of his friends were either dead or had turned their backs on the notion of friendship when he had been banished. He hated himself enough for what he had done to Hua on the boat that fateful night- of course, at the time he'd thought of it as nothing but betrayal by one of his higher-ranking officers, unwanted insolence from a subordinate that needed to be punished- but what had killing him achieved? He'd only had, at the most, about five minutes of victory before his boats had been destroyed by the re-directed cannonballs, and he'd been cornered on what was left of his ship, only to have the largest of the cannons come slamming down on top of him…

Inwardly shuddering at the memory of just how close he had come to certain death, Shen turned back to Lan, yawning slightly. "It is getting rather late. We should probably get to sleep as well."

Lan's only response was to give a small nod as she turned over, giving a low moan at just how sore her joints were from a full day of walking. Well, she was certainly getting her exercise that way, that much she could tell for sure. Besides, being cooped up in a hut for most of your life, not bothering to venture out lest you be recognized by one of the villagers, didn't exactly do wonders for your fitness levels.

That train of thought led to another, and Lan turned her head in Shen's direction, whispering out of the corner of her mouth. "Shen? Are you still awake?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't be bothering to speak up, now would I?" The sarcastic remark rang out into the air as Shen turned in her direction, smirking slightly. "All right, but make it quick. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night."

"You know when you first came to me, and you were practicing kung fu out in the garden? And I said I wanted to learn how to do it? Well…I would like for you to teach me some fight moves."

At that, Shen's eyes nearly bulged out of his skull as he sat up, gaping. "Lan, you can't be serious…Cai Li Fao isn't exactly the easiest of kung fu styles, it took me years to master it, and even now I still don't know a few of the moves…"

"I never said you had to teach me Cai Li Fao." Lan snapped, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Just some basic fight moves, that's all. I do have my arrows, but they tend to not be very reliable at close ranges. I've got to learn how to properly defend myself sooner or later, don't I?"

"Well…honestly, I'm not even sure as to how good of a mentor I would be. You know as well as I do that patience isn't really my forte."

"All I'm asking is that I at least learn _something_. It doesn't even have to be a major fight move. Just enough that I can defend myself for a few minutes, at least." And wasn't that a sign of a good teacher? To learn from them, to know that they were making a difference in your life, whether for good or bad?

Shen's only response was to give a sigh that was admittedly a bit heavier than it should have been. "Fine. We start in the morning, after sunrise. I trust I don't need to remind you to be on time, hmm?"

"Oh, wouldn't that just please the hell out of you, you insufferable-" But Shen was no longer listening to her, and so Lan simply settled with giving an exasperated grumble in his direction.

* * *

><p>Shen wasn't kidding, either- he did like to start his lessons early. When Lan had forgotten to wake up on time after sunrise, he'd (albeit a bit gentler than he would have two weeks ago) shoved her off of her sleeping mat, trying to preach to her that a good student was early to rise, or some philosophical gibberish along those lines. She'd- a bit grudgingly- followed him into a small forest clearing, where he'd promptly shoved a bamboo pole in her face. Evidently, she had to do some task with it, though what she couldn't exactly say.<p>

"I fail to see what this has to do with kung fu, but I guess as long as you're teaching me I have to go along with whatever diabolical schemes you come up with." Lan snarked, holding the pole up with one wing.

"I'm not teaching you kung fu for now. I'm teaching you the basic maneuvers of swordplay." Shen piped up from across the clearing, holding a similar pole. "I find it hard to believe that you don't even know how to hold a blade, let alone use one. And kitchen knives do not count as proper blades."

"Just because our entire family uses them doesn't mean I have to…."

"My parents, your parents, our entire family has at some point learned how to swordfight. Every member, except for you."

"I remember your mother was an excellent halberd user. I guess you picked it up along the way. And I guess I'm a late bloomer in that aspect. But what does this have to do with kung fu, again?"

"Swordplay helps with both your reaction time and center of balance. Which are key components to learning kung fu, I've found. But we're not going to start hacking at each other with blades until you learn how to block an attack properly." Shen muttered, his expression unreadable.

"Oh, well, that's good, considering you've almost whacked my head off with one before-" Lan's sentence was cut off as Shen suddenly thrust the bamboo pole at her side, causing her to let out a very unlady-like yelp as she lost her balance and went tumbling down into the grass.

"And then you're dead. No gold star for you." Shen spoke up from across the clearing, making a slight tsk-tsk sound in his throat.

"Oh, c'mon. I wasn't ready…"

"You think an enemy is going to wait until you're prepared? If you show even the slightest sign of weakness in a fight, your opponent is going to take advantage of that, and you will undoubtedly lose. Is that really how you'd respond to an attack from bandits, or some other such enemy? Now try again." Shen coldly spoke, helping her to her feet. "And don't think that I'm going to go easy on you just because you're a female. Gender wouldn't matter to an enemy, and it won't matter to me."

And so that was how it was for about an hour more- each thrusting at each other with their poles, trying to gain an opening on their opponent. If it was possible for swordplay to be cocky, then Shen's certainly was- he moved with all the grace of a professional dancer, sweeping the pole down low to try and knock her off of balance, aiming it above her head, trying to force her back to the edge of the clearing. Occasionally, Lan would get a blow in edgewise, but otherwise she seemed to be showing just how inexperienced she was. It was just a good thing that they hadn't started out with actual blades, she thought, or else she would have been cut to ribbons by now. As it was, the bamboo poles did deliver quite the sting when they were applied to her at full force, and she didn't think her side had ever ached as much as it did after the session was over.

Shen's only reply to her asking how she had did was that she hadn't been bad for a first-timer, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was at least a bit disappointed in her. She'd made a mental vow to try harder next time- perhaps even practice a bit in private if she could- before following him back to the camp.

And so that was how the routine went- walking, telling tales, listening to Shen rant about Xun and Zhong's antics on occasion, and practicing swordplay and the basic styles of kung fu whenever there was a brief lull in the journey. Xun and Zhong would watch on occasion, wincing whenever Shen managed to whack at Lan with the bamboo staff, along with Zhong's commentary (that could get rather suggestive at times whenever Lan got knocked onto her back during a spar). Though the duo did seem interested in the entire idea of Shen teaching Lan, they didn't offer to jump in and teach her themselves, or worse yet, ask for lessons from Shen, much to Lan's relief. If she was doing this badly, she could only imagine how screwed her friends would be if they tried to spar with Shen.

In fact, the only interruption in the journey came when they crossed through the mountains one morning, coming through one pass to see a sickeningly familiar sight, one that made Shen's stomach sink and a dizzying sense of dread enter his entire body.

It was the old panda village.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: DUN DUN DUNNNNNN. <strong>Oh, c'mon, you guys should know by now that I really like cliffhangers. Perhaps a bit too much. Besides, this will be just another step in the process of Shen's reforming, and I'm looking forward to writing it!

Shen teaching Lan...yeah, that kinda came up after some late-night musing. Hey, Lan's gotta learn how to defend herself with something other than arrows sooner or later, right? And if you're wondering why her family didn't teach her those crucial lessons, it can be assumed that those were also lessons that she skipped out on along with her ettiquette, and maybe they finally gave up on trying to teach her something that she clearly didn't want to learn. Too bad that Shen isn't exactly the most sympathetic of teachers...then again, I guess you can't be very sympathetic when you're trying to beat the crap out of someone.

Now please forgive me for the long wait, and leave kind reviews! I have brownies as an offering. :)


End file.
